In reply to MikeTS:
From the Indy's obit:
"he took up a post as a guide with the Ordensburg at Sonthofen in the Allgäu, little more than a grammar school in Heckmair's belated explanation, though Hitler envisaged these "Castles of the Order" turning out a generation that would "arise to cause the world to recoil in terror". Mountaineering was a means of toughening this future élite. Heckmair and Vörg, already working as a sports trainer at the Ordensburg, apparently declined direct funding for the Eiger but went off with the school's blessing and a stack of subsidised climbing gear."
Whether this counts as sponsorship is up to you, I guess, but I'd certainly view it as 'encouragement' from the regime.