This tradition dates back to the establishment of the town militia which forced all shooters to take part in a special shooting training each year.

To avoid penalties, a lot of shooters rushed out to the training area in the morning of the last possible day, without even enough time to get dressed and thus still wearing their clogs (German: Schlappen).

It is assumed then that Hof was the place where the chief(s) of the Varisci (or Narisci) tribe of the Suebi people held court (and/or perhaps a pagan temple or hall).

Their chief, Valao, was killed during battle around 167 AD and it is possible that these ancient peoples were then transplanted to Italy by Marcus Aurelius and lost their identity.

The Annales Regni Francorum state that in 806 A.D. Sorbian Duke Miliduch fought against the Franks and was killed by Charles the Younger the son of Charlemagne around nearby modern-day Weißenfels.

This route led from Italy to the Baltic Sea and Hof was well situated to be a place of rest for travelers and traders as the flourishing markets of Leipzig, Zwickau, and Nuremberg began to develop.

In 1524, a reforming priest named Kaspar Löhner was reassigned from his preaching position at Kloster Birkenfeld, after complaints from the Abbess, and brought to Hof under Head Pastor Friedrich v. Brandenburg.

Previously a co-worker with Thomas Müntzer, Storch is also considered a forerunner of the Anabaptist movement, because Widmann recorded him as having preached and practiced adult baptism in Hof.

This was refused and according to Philip Melancthon (letter to Joachim Camerarius, 17 April 1525) Storch played a leading role in the Peasants War of 1525.

Löhner's first stay in Hof was also short-lived and Head Pastor Friedrich von Brandenburg had him removed the year after he arrived (1525) and he was replaced by the Catholic priest Wolfgang Thech.

On Easter of 1527 Thech had his beard and hair purposely set on fire by young men while he was impersonating Christ in a Harrowing of Hell re-enactment.

This public act marks a major turning point in which Hof began to assert itself as openly Lutheran against the jurisdiction of the Catholic Church.

Pastor Kaspar Löhner was a leading theologian and writer in his day and he wrote a church liturgy (German: Gottesdienstordnung), catechism, and a hymnal among other writings.

Löhner and Medler both continued to receive opposition from powerful individuals including the regional governor (German: Landhauptmann) Christoph von Beulwitz who was a supporter of the Bishop of Bamberg.

Translation: "[From] Martin Luther, to the venerable brothers in Christ and faithful citizens of the city of Hof, Kaspar Löner, Pastor, and Nicholas Medler, School Master.

This is due to the fact that even though George the Pious was actively trying to introduce Protestantism into his lands, he was constantly opposed by his brother Friedrich who held numerous benefices in Hof.

In 1546, Margrave Albert Alcibiades of Brandenburg-Kulmbach founded a Grammar School in Hof, which is today known as the Jean-Paul Gymnasium, in honor of the most famous student that attended there: Jean Paul Friedrich Richter.

Also, the end of the last Roman Catholic stronghold in Hof; Das Kloster der Klarissen occurred during this siege as Abbess Amalie of Hirschberg escaped with her nuns to Cheb (Eger).

After the siege, Henry IV briefly put Georg Wolf of Kotzau (who had once served Margrave Albert) in charge of the governance of Hof.

Finally, Albert's cousin, Margrave Jürgen Friedrich of Brandenburg-Ansbach (reign of 1557–1603) took power and ruled over Hof and rebuilt it along with much of his Margraviate which had been ransacked during the war.

The noted artist Hans Glaser made a woodcut of the siege of Hof which is located in today in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nürnberg.

This was done in accordance with House Treaty of Gera set in place in 1599 to provide for a peaceful transition of power to the heirless Jürgen Friedrich.

In 1632 and 33 Heinrich Holk's cavalry unit of Croatian and Polish forces ravaged the surrounding region (especially the neighboring Electorate of Saxony).

[17] One can only imagine the joy when the wars ended and Margrave Karsten called a general festival of thanksgiving for peace which was celebrated throughout his Principality in February 1639.

This forced the Prussian envoy, Count Karsten of Haugwitz, to negotiate a treaty of friendship called the Convention of Schönbrunn (15 December 1805) proclaiming an alliance between Prussia and France.

He was received with a storm of abuse by Napoleon, who insisted on tearing up the treaty and drawing up a fresh one, which doubled the amount of territory to be ceded by Prussia and forced her to a breach with Great Britain by binding her to close the Hanoverian ports to British commerce.

In the War of the Fourth Coalition (1806–1807) Hof was then briefly held by General Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien of the Prussian Army.

Hof is located near the old Berlin-Munich autobahn, which was thought to be a possible invasion route by Warsaw Pact forces had the Cold War ever escalated into armed conflict (see Fulda Gap).

In the nineteenth century, Christoph August von Schmidt, after having served as a Provost at the University of Saint Petersburg, Russia where he was ennobled by the Tsar and awarded the orders of St Stanislaus and Sts Ann-and-Vladimir, erected a monument[20] describing his adventure and bearing the simplified, swan version of his coat-of-arms which today has been adopted by the village of Gattendorf as its municipal arms.

Although the book locates Ruritania along the railway line between Dresden in Sachsen (Saxony) and Prague, capital of Bohemia (modern day Czech Republic), one can see Hof in the descriptions of Strelsau.