Walter Andreas Hofer

Walter Andreas Hofer (10 February 1893 – 12 October 1975) was a German art dealer who was Hermann Göring's principal art agent, director of the Göring Collection, and an important figure in Nazi art looting during World War II. Hofer is referenced 162 times in the OSS Art Looting Investigation Units Reports of 1945-1946. He was not a member of the Nazi Party. After the war he continued to work as an art dealer in Munich.

Early life Hofer was born in Berlin in 1893. He began his career at the gallery of his brother-in-law Kurt Walter Bachstitz in The Hague. In 1928, Hofer went to Berlin to study art where he met the Lausanne art collector Gottlieb Reber. Between 1930 and 1934, Hofer worked for Reber in Switzerland. From 1934, Hofer was an independent dealer working in Berlin near the Kurfürstendamm.

Family In 1937, Hofer married the art restorer Berta Fritsch, who later became the official picture restorer for the Göring Collection. Fritsch was the sister of Gottlieb Reber's secretary.

Work for Hermann Göring

Hofer began to work for Hermann Göring in 1937 and became Göring's principal art agent and later director of the Göring Collection. He travelled on Göring's special art trains and could get essential foreign currency (Devisen) for his purchases which was in short supply for ordinary Germans. Where he didn't need foreign currency, as in the Netherlands where the German and Dutch currencies became directly convertible in April 1941, he was even more active in his acquisitions, sometimes competing with agents from other parts of the German government. Göring said that the price of a work of art was never a problem and he often paid above market price (where he did not confiscate items outright) though he was often slow to pay the bill. Hofer claimed that on one occasion in Paris, he beat an agent acting for Adolf Hitler to a Rembrandt by one day.

Hofer is mentioned 162 times in the OSS Art Looting Intelligence Unit's 1945-1946 Reports and List of Red Flag Names.

In Italy, Hofer was introduced to Italian collectors by Alessandro Morandotti, who facilitated contact between Göring and other Italian dealers as well.

Post-war Immediately after V-E Day, Photographs of him with the collection appeared in Life magazine and in newsreels. Berta Hofer continued to work on restorations, apparently as though nothing had happened.