Eventually, Hohmann realized that minimizing the amount of fuel that the spacecraft had to carry would be an important consideration, and he plotted a variety of orbits until he found the one that now bears his name.

[2] The importance of this work saw Hohmann become a leading figure in Germany's amateur rocketry movement in the late 1920s, the Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR — "Spaceflight Society").

Writer Willy Ley asked Hohmann to contribute to an anthology of papers on spaceflight, "Die Möglichkeit der Weltraumfahrt" (The Possibility of Space Travel), published in 1928.

Following the rise to power of the Nazi party, Hohmann distanced himself as much as possible from rocketry, wishing to play no part in the development of the rocket as a weapon.

He died in an Essen hospital shortly before the end of World War II as a result of stress experienced during the intense Allied bombing of the city.