Hahne made his name primarily in touring car racing with BMW Deutschland, competing across multiple seasons of the European Touring Car Championship. He finished third in the 1963 European Touring Car Challenge and won the Division 3 title outright in 1966, driving a BMW 2000TI. In 1964 he took second place at the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
His most celebrated achievement came in 1966 during a support race for the German Grand Prix. An Alfa Romeo GTA had set a touring car lap record of 10:08.9 at the Nürburgring six-hour Großer Preis der Tourenwagen on 3 July. A month later, Hahne became the first driver to lap the Nürburgring in under ten minutes in a touring car, recording 9:58.5 in his BMW 2000TI. He also competed in the Trans-American Sedan Championship that year for Alan Mann Racing and made appearances in the RAC British Saloon Car Championship in 1968.
In 1968, racing a BMW 2002 for BMW AG in the European Touring Car Championship Division 3, Hahne finished the season fourth with one win. He returned to the division in 1969 and recorded a win and a fastest lap while finishing ninth overall.
Hahne participated in five Formula One World Championship entries during his career, though two of those — at the 1966 and 1969 German Grands Prix — were made in the special Formula Two sections that the old Nürburgring hosted alongside the main F1 field. As the F2 section was scored separately, drivers in it could not accumulate World Championship points. Hahne withdrew from the 1969 event before the start following the fatal accident of his team-mate Gerhard Mitter during practice.
His true Formula One debut came at the 1967 German Grand Prix with BMW AG München, driving a Lola T100 chassis fitted with a 2-litre 16-valve BMW engine — a specification that technically qualified the car for Formula One under the rules of the day. He retired on lap 7 with suspension failure. The following year at the same race, driving a Lola T102, he finished tenth.
For 1970 Hahne obtained a March 701 with the aim of continuing in Formula One, but he failed to qualify for the German Grand Prix held that year at the Hockenheimring. He was openly critical of the quality of the chassis and engine he received. Some credibility was lent to his complaint when Ronnie Peterson later demonstrated competitive times from the same car at Silverstone. He also ran in European Formula Two for BMW in 1969 and 1970, finishing second in the 1969 championship with 28 points, and competed in Formula 2 Eifelrennen races at the Nürburgring.
Following his frustration at Hockenheimring, Hahne retired from racing. He died in Düsseldorf on 24 April 2019, aged 84.
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