Along with sculptor Arno Breker, stage designer Benno von Arent, architect Gerdy Troost, and museum director Hans Posse, Hoffmann was one of the few people whose artistic judgment Hitler trusted. He bestowed the honorific title of "Professor" on Hoffmann in 1938, something he did for many of his favorites in the arts, such as Leni Riefenstahl, the actress and film director, architects Albert Speer and Hermann Giesler, sculptors Breker and Josef Thorak, Wilhelm Furtwängler, conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, and actor Emil Jannings, among others.