Hoffmann was born in Bremen on 25 August 1925, the son of an export merchant. He attended the gymnasium in Lünen and then in Oberhausen. He was a Fallschirmjäger in World War II and a prisoner of war in the US. When he returned in 1947, he studied directing at the Folkwang Hochschule for Music and Theater in Essen, graduating with a diploma. He began work as assistant stage director at the Theater Essen. In 1951, he became director of the Volkshochschule, then the youngest in the Federal Republic, and held the post until 1965. In 1954, he founded the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen in Oberhausen, which he directed until 1970. From 1965 to 1970, he served as Kultur- und Sozialdezernent of Oberhausen, responsible for culture and social politics. During this time, he was lecturer at the Ruhr University in Bochum from 1967 to 1970. From 1970 to 1990, he was a city councillor in the government of Frankfurt, as Dezernent für Kultur und Freizeit, responsible for culture and leisure. He initiated the promotion of free groups in urban culture, street theatre and 30 libraries in suburbs. He founded the Museumsufer, a series of 15 new museums along the Main River, with the traditional Städel Museum as the centre. He is credited with making Frankfurt a city of culture, not only commerce, initiating the Jewish Museum Frankfurt as the first independent Jewish museum in postwar Germany, the German Architecture Museum, and its first municipal cinema. The Museum Angewandte Kunst was designed by Richard Meier, including the from 1803 and its park. The Washington Post quoted Hoffmann in 1985: "We are not just building museums, but a whole program." Hoffmann supported the as a venue for alternative culture, and the restoration of the ruined opera house as the concert hall and congress centre Alte Oper. During his tenure, the opera house became in the "Gielen era" one of the leading houses in Germany, focused on Regietheater. From 1993 to 2001, he was also president of the Goethe-Institut, in a period of needed expansion in Eastern Europe and reduced funding. He taught film theory and cultural politics at the universities of Bochum, Marburg and Frankfurt, and as a visiting professor in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. He died in Frankfurt on 1 June 2018.
Legacy
When he retired from the post as president of the Goethe-Institut in 2002, Bundespräsident Johannes Rau said "Der Mann streitet glaubwürdig – und ein begnadeter Bettler ist er auch". After his death, Germany's minister of culture, Monika Grütters said that Germany lost one of its most formative and successful cultural politicians who had the great talent to inspire people across party barriers. Hoffmann's successor in Frankfurt, Ina Hartwig, said that he was known beyond Frankfurt for his demand for a broad cultural participation and the founding of the Museumsufer.
During his time in Frankfurt, Hoffman published a book summarizing his creed and program for the future, Kultur für alle. He wrote Die großen Frankfurter / Ehrenwürdige Bürger und Ehrenbürger, portraying 27 honorary citizens of Frankfurt, and those who deserve to be honoured. Its fourth edition added Walter Wallmann, mayor of Frankfurt and honorary citizen of 2009, who was for many years a supporter of Hoffmann's visions such as the Museumsufer. His publications are held by the German National Library, including:
