In 1951, he fled from the German Democratic Republic and settled in Freiburg im Breisgau, where he continued his studies.
After one year as a research assistant at the University of Freiburg, he left Germany in 1961 for Bristol to teach German literature.
Over the next ten years he taught at universities in Europe in Toulouse, Paris, Edinburgh, and in the United States at New Haven, Berkeley, California and Austin.
[2] Hofmann received several literary awards during his lifetime including the Ingeborg-Bachmann-Preis for Die Fistelstimme (1979), the Alfred-Döblin-Preis (1982), and the Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden for Die Brautschau des Dichters Robert Walser im Hof der Anstaltswäscherei von Bellelay, Kanton Bern (1983).
In 1995, Hofmann and his son Michael won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for The Film Explainer.