Hoff was born Magdalene Allwicher in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on 29 December 1940.
[1][2] She became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1971,[3][4] and was trained as both a civil engineer and a lecturer.
[8] Hoff again was elected to represent the constituency of West Germany from 25 July 1989 to 18 July 1994 at the 1989 European Parliament election in West Germany, initially for the Socialist Group and then for the Group of the Party of European Socialists from 1993.
Hoff was a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy and the Delegation for relations with the Republics of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) before becoming its chair.
[1][11] She was a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy and was on the Delegation for relations with the United States.