He began his career as an assistant director in 1950 with Der keusche Adam.
He worked steadily in a variety of popular genres of the international co-productions of the time, musicals with Vivi Bach such as Holiday in St. Tropez (1964) and Tausend Takte Übermut (1965), a Sauerkraut Western Black Eagle of Santa Fe (1965), a Eurospy film Red Dragon (1965), then moving to adult films with The Fountain of Love and Black Market of Love both in 1966; the latter with a screenplay by Hofbauer, followed by Hot Pavements of Cologne (1967) and The Young Tigers of Hong Kong (1969).
During the early 1970s, in Munich, Hofbauer teamed with Walter Boos, Wolf C. Hartwig and Ludwig Spitaler to produce the original thirteen films under the banner Schulmadchen Report (or Schoolgirl Report); the stories were adapted from books written by Günther Hunold, while Günther Heller composed the film script, Klaus Werner did the camera work, and the music was handled by Gert Wilden & Orchestra.
Because the films focused on young girls who may have been under the legal age in this country, the Schoolgirl Report series was eventually suppressed.
A chronological list of the original 13 Schoolgirl Report films follows: In addition to the original Schulmadchen Report films, Ernst Hofbauer directed several other erotic movies featuring adult as well as young actresses.