Joachim Hoffmann first studied industrial and engineering psychology at the Humboldt University in Berlin. This was followed by studies in general psychology, which he completed in 1972 with a doctorate supervised by Friedhart Klix. Hoffmann successfully defended his habilitation, also supervised by Klix, in 1978. Professorships followed at the Humboldt University, at the Central Institute for Cybernetics and Information Processes of the GDR, and at the Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research in Munich. In 1994, Hoffmann was appointed to Würzburg as the successor of Otto Heller and, to a certain extent, initiated a local cognitive turn on Chair III, away from the psychophysics that had prevailed until then.