Walter Hoffmann

Walter Hoffmann held a degree in economics. In 1933 he was appointed general manager of the Reichskammer für Bildende Künste (Reich Chamber for Fine Arts) and a Reich Culture Senator two years later. In these functions, he was a member of the commission for the confiscation of “degenerate art” and was responsible for the subsequent safekeeping of the confiscated works.

Hoffmann became leader of the Central Office for Culture in the Reich Ministry for Armaments and War Production in 1942. He was also division head in the office of the General Building Inspector (GBI) of the German capital. By various contemporary witnesses, he was described as „a brutal Nazi” and a „typical tyrant of the Third Reich“. In his position with the GBI, he ruled over a workforce of sculptors and numerous other skilled and unskilled laborers, many of whom were prisoners of war, living under harsh conditions.

Hoffmann went missing in 1945 and was later declared dead.