von 
Operation Brooklyn March 3, 1945 in the Dorfzeitung, January 2023
OBERPERFUSS, April – August 1945
Through Christine and Peter Gastl, I was able to meet Alfons Hörtnagl from Oberperfuss recently.
He wrote the Foreword to a privately published book:
‘Ende und Anfang in Oberperfuss’, by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Hermann Mix, Rostock (see picture – taken by A. Hörtnagl).
What is it about?
On the evening of April 27 1945, shortly before the end of World War 2, the German Wehrmacht 8th
Company of Grenadier Regiment 466 was quartered in Oberperfuss, with 100 fully armed men. They
were on the 300-km retreat with their horses from Karlsruhe, via Pfronten and the fern Pass into
Tirol. It is thanks to the young Lieutenant Hermann Mix that his Company offered no resistance and
did not fire back at the advancing Americans at Reith.
The locals of Oberperfuss were, understandably, mistrustful and afraid. What if….? To avoid any
military action or confrontation, in the early morning of May 1, Hermann Mix marched his company
to the edge of the descent from Oberperfuss into the Sellrain Valley: there the rifles and machine-
guns were broken and rendered useless, then thrown far down. The Company then returned to
Oberperfuss, where – at the Gasthof Krone – they were discharged of any further military obligation:
the soldiers were demobilised, and the troop disbanded. The people of Oberperfuss were more than relieved.
As for Lt. Hermann Mix, for his own security, he was driven by car to the Mayor of Gries in the
Sellrain, Julius Witting. During that week he was able to avoid the two SS Officers who were going to
arrest him. In the meantime, the Americans had taken Oberperfuss … without a shot being fired. On
May 19, Mix was interrogated for three days by the Americans in the Gasthof Krone. He remained in
Oberperfuss, receiving the hospitality of the locals. On July 25, he was arrested by the Police and
imprisoned in Innsbruck. After an operation to remove his tonsils, Mix was able to escape and
returned to Oberperfuss! He was then given safety in the rear Alm Hut of the Gleirschalm by Hans
Stachn, who nursed him back to health!
In the early dawn of August 17, Mix set off for home: by train from Kematen to Innsbruck, then up to
Seefeld. Five days later he was in Hamburg, among friends. On October 9 1945 he met up with his
parents at the family home in Wismar.
From June 28 to July 7 2021, a Dr Wolfgang Donner spent time in Oberperfuss, researching the story
of Hermann Mix. He had helped Mix with the latter’s war-diaries and dealing with his traumatic war
experiences. After Mix died in 2017, Dr Donner then visited Oberperfuss. There Anton Simon,
responsible for the Ortschronik, and Alfons Hörtnagl helped him with his research.
I am very grateful to Alfons for giving me a copy of Hermann’s book and for meeting me recently.
