When Hitler became the ruler of Germany, Hoffmann was the only person authorized to take official photographs of him.
Hoffmann's photographs were published as postage stamps, postcards, posters and picture books.
Following Hoffmann's suggestion, both he and Hitler received royalties from all uses of Hitler's image, even on postage stamps, which made both Hitler and Hoffmann millionaires: the postage-stamp royalty amounted to at least $75 million over the course of Hitler's reign.
For other subjects, he was represented by Schostal Photo Agency (Agentur Schostal).

In 1933 Hoffmann was elected to the Reichstag, which after the passage of the Enabling Act of 1933 had become a powerless entity with little function except to serve as a stage setting for some of Hitler's policy speeches.
As a one-party state, an "election" in Nazi Germany meant marking a ballot approving the Führer's list of candidates; no alternative choices were presented or allowed.

The personal esteem Hitler held for Hoffmann is indicated by the fact that in 1935 he allowed the photographer to issue a limited edition of a portfolio of seven paintings Hitler had made during World War I, even though since becoming Chancellor he had downplayed his desire to become a painter in his youth.
In later years, Hitler forbade any publication of or commentary about his work as a painter.
Also in 1935, for Hoffmann's 50th birthday, Hitler gave the photographer one of his own paintings of the courtyard of the Alte Residenz ("Old Royal Palace") in Munich, a favorite subject of Hitler's, and one he had painted many times when he was a struggling artist.
Hoffmann came to own at least four of Hitler's watercolors – one was purchased in 1944, which provoked the remark from Hitler that it would have been "insane" to have paid more than 150 or 200 marks for it, at most – which were seized by the U.S. Army at the end of the war, and were never returned to Germany.

In 1937, when the selection jury Hitler had chosen to put together the first Great German Art Exhibition to inaugurate the opening of the House of German Art in Munich outraged and angered the Führer with their choices, he dismissed the panel and put Hoffmann in charge.
 This dismayed the artistic community, who felt that Hoffmann was unqualified for the role.
Frederic Spotts, in Hitler and the Aesthetics of Power, reports that Hoffmann was "an alcoholic and cretin who knew little more about painting than did the average plumber".
Hoffmann's answer to his critics was that he knew what Hitler wanted and what would appeal to him.
 Nevertheless, even some of Hoffmann's choices were dismissed from the exhibition by Hitler; a room full of somewhat more modern paintings which Hoffmann had selected as possibilities were angrily dismissed by Hitler with a gesture.
 Hoffmann remained in charge for subsequent annual Great German Art Exhibitions, making the preliminary selections which were then hung for Hitler to approve or veto.
 Hoffmann preferred the conventional work of painters from southern Germany, what Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels called in his diary "Munich-school kitsch", over that of the more experimental painters from the north.

In May 1938, when Hitler decreed the "Law for the Confiscation of the Products of Degenerate Art" – which retroactively justified the Nazis' confiscation without payment of modern art from museums and galleries for the exhibition of "Degenerate Art" mounted in Munich in July 1937, and allowed for the further unpaid taking of such art from institutions and individuals – Hoffmann was one of the commissioners named to centralize the condemnation and confiscation process, along with chairman Adolf Ziegler, President of the Reich Chamber for Visual Arts, art deal Karl Haberstock, and others.
 A year later, Josef Goebbels, the Reich Propaganda Minister, brought the commission into his Ministry and restaffed it to include more art dealers, since the sale of these confiscated works internationally was a source of hard currency for the Nazi regime – although not as much as was expected, since t
When Hitler became the ruler of Germany, Hoffmann was the only person authorized to take official photographs of him. Hoffmann's photographs were published as postage stamps, postcards, posters and picture books. Following Hoffmann's suggestion, both he and Hitler received royalties from all uses of Hitler's image, even on postage stamps, which made both Hitler and Hoffmann millionaires: the postage-stamp royalty amounted to at least $75 million over the course of Hitler's reign. For other subjects, he was represented by Schostal Photo Agency (Agentur Schostal).
In 1933 Hoffmann was elected to the Reichstag, which after the passage of the Enabling Act of 1933 had become a powerless entity with little function except to serve as a stage setting for some of Hitler's policy speeches. As a one-party state, an "election" in Nazi Germany meant marking a ballot approving the Führer's list of candidates; no alternative choices were presented or allowed.
The personal esteem Hitler held for Hoffmann is indicated by the fact that in 1935 he allowed the photographer to issue a limited edition of a portfolio of seven paintings Hitler had made during World War I, even though since becoming Chancellor he had downplayed his desire to become a painter in his youth. In later years, Hitler forbade any publication of or commentary about his work as a painter. Also in 1935, for Hoffmann's 50th birthday, Hitler gave the photographer one of his own paintings of the courtyard of the Alte Residenz ("Old Royal Palace") in Munich, a favorite subject of Hitler's, and one he had painted many times when he was a struggling artist. Hoffmann came to own at least four of Hitler's watercolors – one was purchased in 1944, which provoked the remark from Hitler that it would have been "insane" to have paid more than 150 or 200 marks for it, at most – which were seized by the U.S. Army at the end of the war, and were never returned to Germany.
In 1937, when the selection jury Hitler had chosen to put together the first Great German Art Exhibition to inaugurate the opening of the House of German Art in Munich outraged and angered the Führer with their choices, he dismissed the panel and put Hoffmann in charge.  This dismayed the artistic community, who felt that Hoffmann was unqualified for the role. Frederic Spotts, in Hitler and the Aesthetics of Power, reports that Hoffmann was "an alcoholic and cretin who knew little more about painting than did the average plumber". Hoffmann's answer to his critics was that he knew what Hitler wanted and what would appeal to him.  Nevertheless, even some of Hoffmann's choices were dismissed from the exhibition by Hitler; a room full of somewhat more modern paintings which Hoffmann had selected as possibilities were angrily dismissed by Hitler with a gesture.  Hoffmann remained in charge for subsequent annual Great German Art Exhibitions, making the preliminary selections which were then hung for Hitler to approve or veto.  Hoffmann preferred the conventional work of painters from southern Germany, what Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels called in his diary "Munich-school kitsch", over that of the more experimental painters from the north.
In May 1938, when Hitler decreed the "Law for the Confiscation of the Products of Degenerate Art" – which retroactively justified the Nazis' confiscation without payment of modern art from museums and galleries for the exhibition of "Degenerate Art" mounted in Munich in July 1937, and allowed for the further unpaid taking of such art from institutions and individuals – Hoffmann was one of the commissioners named to centralize the condemnation and confiscation process, along with chairman Adolf Ziegler, President of the Reich Chamber for Visual Arts, art deal Karl Haberstock, and others.  A year later, Josef Goebbels, the Reich Propaganda Minister, brought the commission into his Ministry and restaffed it to include more art dealers, since the sale of these confiscated works internationally was a source of hard currency for the Nazi regime – although not as much as was expected, since t
Heinrich Hoffmann (photographer)