He studied medicine at the Berlin Military Academy, and was later a professor at the Universities of Halle and Bonn.
Hoffmann is remembered for his research performed with zoologist Fritz Schaudinn (1871-1906) at the Charité Clinic in Berlin.
The two doctors documented their findings in a treatise called Vorläufiger Bericht über das Vorkommen von Spirochaeten in syphilitischen Krankheitsprodukten und bei Papillome.
[3] Hoffmann left Germany during the era of National Socialism, but returned to Bonn after the war and established a laboratory.
In the late 1940s he published two books about his life in medicine, titled "Wollen und Schaffen" and "Ringen um Vollendung".