In 1637
Archduke Ferdinand Karl appointed him to be a councillor (
Regimentsrat) of
Upper Austria. In 1646 he was appointed to the
Wirklichen Regimentsrat and in 1654 to the
Regimentskammer. In 1655 Hocher became the
Tyrolean Vice-Chancellor (
Vizekanzler) and on 9 July 1660 was knighted in Innsbruck. In the same year Hocher wrote a new Tyrolean constitution, the
Tirolische Landesordnung. In December 1660 he gave up his position as Vice-Chancellor to become the Court Chancellor (
Hofkanzler) (1660-1663) to the Prince Bishop of
Brixen. At the
Imperial Diet of Regensburg in 1665 Hocher acted as the Imperial
Reichshofrat and Austrian ambassador. On the death of
Archduke Sigismund Francis and the subsequent union of
Tyrol with the other
Habsburg dominions under Leopold I, the emperor appointed him Vice Chancellor of Upper Austria on 1 October 1665. In view of his origins as a commoner, Hocher declined the position of court chancellor (
Obersten Hofkanzler) but accepted this honour upon his elevation to the hereditary peerage (8 March 1667). Following the
Magnate conspiracy Hocher headed the Special Court which sentenced to death the leaders of the conspiracy (Ferenc Nadasdy,
Petar Zrinski and
Fran Krsto Frankopan) in 1671. Shortly before the
second Turkish siege of Vienna in July 1683 Hocher died at "Gundelhof" in Vienna (now Number 4, Bauernmarkt in the First District of Vienna). He was buried in the family vault in Kuefstein'schen, Greillenstein (
Horn District,
Lower Austria). == Legacy ==