Matthias Wißhofer

Matthias Wißhofer (also Wieshofer, Wießhofer, Wishofer and Wisshofer; 1752, Kössen - 23 September 1819, St. Johann in Tirol) was an Austrian freedom fighter, clergyman and pastor. He also served as the first school inspector for the Tyrolean Unterland. In addition, he was an amateur inventor, and is said to have devised an "electric shotgun".

Biography He was one of twelve children born to Matthias Wisshofer; a wainwright. He was a seminarist at the in Munich and graduated from the Jesuitengymnasium (now the Wilhelmsgymnasium) in 1771. After studying theology at the , he was employed by the Jesuits in Freiburg im Breisgau, where studied classical and modern languages. Later, he served at the in Salzburg, where he was ordained.

From 1781, he was Coadjutor Bishop in Hopfgarten im Brixental. During that time, he was also employed as Imperial for Rattenberg, Kufstein and Kitzbühel. After 1783, he was the Dechant (Dean) in St. Johann.

In the course of the Tyrolean Rebellion (1809), during heavy fighting on the , he offered his life to the Bavarian Field Marshal, Karl Philipp von Wrede, in an effort to obtain mercy for the resistance fighters and prevent the destruction of St. Johann. He was sentenced to death by hanging. At the last moment, he received a pardon from the commander of the French forces, General François-Joseph Lefebvre.

The poetry collection, Bilder und Sagen (Pictures and Legends, 1889), contains a poem dedicated to him, by .

To mark the centenary of the Tyrolean resistance, a monument to Wißhofer him was constructed on St. Johann's main square. It was cast in bronze from a design by Norbert Pfretzschner, and placed on a marble plinth which serves as a fountain. The base in inscribed "Erretter aus Feindesnot" (roughly, Savior from Enemy Persecution, after Psalm 7). Monument to Wißhofer, St. Johann in Tirol; by Norbert Pfretzschner