[1] As a student he had been a member of the Burschenschaft and an ardent follower of the German nationalist and antisemitic hard-liner Georg Ritter von Schönerer before settling into a position as a lawyer in Judenburg.

[2] He became a Heimwehr leader early in the movement's life and initially won the financial backing of the Alpine Montangesellschaft, the largest heavy industry concern in Austria.

[3] His Heimwehr unit was amongst the best armed, having received weapons from both Bavarian Georg Escherich rightist paramilitary leader and the local Landeshauptmann Anton Rintelen.

[2] Like his sometime ally Richard Steidle in Tyrol he unashamedly endorsed fascism for the Heimwehr, unlike other units that were close to the more ideologically pragmatic Christian Social Party,[4] and in 1930 publicly advocated the overthrow of the government and the establishment of a fascist regime in Austria.

After rising up in Styria his units launched a marcia su Wien in a direct copy of Benito Mussolini's March on Rome but it proved to be a disaster and Pfrimer became mockingly known as the "half-day dictator" in reference to how long it took to put his attempted rebellion down.