[1] As an ensign, he studied at the Kriegsschule (Officer School) in Neisse from October 1887 to August 1888, graduated with an Imperial commendation and was commissioned second lieutenant.

During that time, he is remembered for breaching protocol in the presence of other foreign observers when a Japanese general refused to allow him on to a hill to watch a battle.

In 1911, he became an instructor at the War Academy for two years before he moved to the 112th Infantry Regiment, where he had a field and then a staff position and was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

At the outbreak of World War I Hoffmann became the first general staff officer of the German Eighth Army and was responsible for defending their eastern border from a Russian attack.

The bulk of the German Army, following the Schlieffen Plan, was attempting to gain decisive victory in the west by knocking France out of the war.

To avoid being cut off the alarmed Eighth Army commander, Maximilian von Prittwitz, proposed to retreat over the Vistula River and to abandon East Prussia to the invaders.

He soon reconsidered and instead decided to move the bulk of his forces to block the Russian Second Army from reaching the Vistula, but he and his chief of staff had already been relieved in favor of Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff.

Hoffmann saw the propaganda value of casting the German victory as long-awaited revenge for a nearby medieval defeat and so he suggested the engagement be named Tannenberg, though it actually took place much closer to Allenstein.

[6] During the winter lull in the fighting, Ober Ost struggled unsuccessfully to shift major operations eastward in the coming year and claimed that it could force the Russians out of the war by encircling its armies in the Polish salient.

Ober Ost began 1915 with a surprise attack in a snowstorm that encircled a Russian army, completed the liberation of East Prussia and obtained a foothold in Russia's Baltic provinces.

To exploit the successful defence, Ober Ost pleaded for reinforcements to enable it to capture the fortress of Riga and to roll up the Russian armies in the north, but the Supreme Commander focused on his fruitless attacks on Verdun.

In addition to plugging holes along their long front, the staff was busy organizing training for the Austro-Hungarians whom they now commanded and the Russians were still pushing back.

[14] Hoffmann had a two-hour conversation in which the young emperor "gave his opinion on military matters by which he displayed his great want of understanding in all he said".

[15] Hoffmann corresponded and met with political leaders like Wolfgang Kapp, a founder of the right-wing Fatherland Party who after the war led a failed putsch to overturn the Weimar Republic.

At first, the Austro-Hungarians lost ground, but on 19 July, Prince Leopold and Hoffmann were in a tower to watch the Germans counterattack the flank of the Russian incursion slicing through to the rear.

Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Ottokar Czernin found, "The General [Hoffmann] combined expert knowledge and energy with a good deal of calm and ability, but also not a little of Prussian brutality...".

[18] The negotiations dragged on; the major sticking point was that the Russians would not be given back Poland, Lithuania or Courland, which the Central Powers maintained had opted for independence.

In December 1917, he was summoned to Berlin, where at lunch, the Kaiser ordered him, despite his objections, to give his opinion regarding the postwar German–Polish border.

[20] Ludendorff undermined him with a press campaign that alleged that his ideas came from his Jewish wife,[21] who was a well-known artist from a family of converts.

[22] After a break, the negotiations were resumed with Foreign Commissar Leon Trotsky, who led the Russian delegation; he stopped them from eating with the enemy.

German troops marched into Ukraine to prop up the beleaguered independent government and also went further east into the Don basin to obtain the coal to ship the grain that they had seized.

[24] The Supreme Commanders set up new administrations for Ukraine and the Baltic States and strikingly diminished Prince Leopold's and Hoffmann's territorial sway since they were left with only Ober Ost.