Hofer was born in
Rhein in the
Province of Prussia in 1861. He studied
natural sciences at the
University of Königsberg, receiving his doctorate in 1887 in
Munich as a student of
Richard Hertwig. He then worked as an assistant at the Zoological Institute of Munich, and in 1889 obtained his
habilitation. He obtained a position at the Zoological Institute as a university lecturer and in 1891 acquired citizenship of the
Kingdom of Bavaria. In 1894, he was appointed as a curator of the
Zoologischen Sammlung des Staates, and two years later became a lecturer for
ichthyology at the veterinary university of Munich. In 1898, he was awarded an associate professorship for
zoology and ichthyology and the chair of a full professor in 1904. and the "Royal Bavarian Research Station for Fish-Farming", vice-president of the "Bavarian Association of Fishermen" and editor of the magazine "
Allgemeine Fischereizeitung". In 1909 he circumscribed the whitefish species
Coregonus bavaricus. Hofer died in 1916 in Munich at the age of 54. ==Publications==