came to discuss it with Goebbels and Hitler, Hoffmann forged the image of a ruthless occupation policy. (trans. from German) On 26 January 1943 Hoffmann was appointed Acting Gauleiter of Westphalia-South, when Paul Giesler took up new duties in Gau Munich-Upper Bavaria. At the same time, Hoffmann also was made Reich Defense Commissioner for his Gau. On 1 August he was named to the Prussian State Council. On 9 November he was promoted to SS-Gruppenführer. In December of the same year, Hoffmann was appointed Deputy to Joseph Goebbels in his capacity as Reich Inspector for Civil Aerial Warfare Measures. On 17 April 1944, Hofmann was made permanent Gauleiter of Westphalia-South. On 25 September 1944 he was placed in command of the Volksturm units in his jurisdiction. In October he was named Reich Defense Commissioner for the Rhine and Ruhr regions. Hoffmann, who did not enjoy widespread popularity even within the Nazi Party's top ranks owing to his arrogance and bossy manner, was said to have been a staunch Nazi right through to the war's end. Shortly before the war ended, as Allied troops were invading his jurisdiction, he ordered the destruction of numerous bridges and other infrastructure. Finally, on 13 April 1945, Hoffmann dissolved his Gau staff and the Volkssturm organization in Westphalia-South and went into hiding. Post-war trial, conviction, and sentence Hoffmann was finally discovered and arrested by British troops on 4 October 1945. He testified as a witness to atrocities in the Nuremberg Trials and was later himself charged in connection with the murders of Allied soldiers and foreign forced labourers. He was acquitted for lack of evidence. However, he was then tried by a German De-Nazification Court and received a prison sentence of 4 years and 9 months, only part of which he served, receiving a pardon. Later life and family After his release in April 1950, Hoffmann earned considerable assets as an entrepreneur in Bremen. Hoffmann was married. His son Bolko Hoffmann is likewise a successful entrepreneur and the founder of the Pro DM Party, a rightwing, conservative fringe party in Germany whose main policy is to campaign for the reintroduction of the Deutsche Mark. References Literature Ralf Blank: Albert Hoffmann, in: Westfälische Lebensbilder 17, Münster 2005 [= Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Westfalen XXVII A, 17]. Ralf Blank: Albert Hoffmann als Reichsverteidigungskommissar im Gau Westfalen-Süd, 1943-1945. Eine biografische Skizze, in: Beiträge zur Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus