Hoffmann was born in Dorpat, Governorate of Estonia, where his father was professor in Internal Medicine.
He went on to study medicine in Universities of Leipzig, Marburg and Berlin from where he received his medical degree in 1909.
He was a prolific writer and researcher, and has been hailed by some as father of modern German neurophysiology.
The university was completely destroyed in an aerial raid in 1944, but Hoffmann later continued his work in a new building, until he retired in 1954.
[4][5][6] In October 1915, Jules Tinel described the same phenomenon in French "le signe de fourmillement".