Theodor Wolff

After training in publishing, nineteen-year-old Theodor Wolff joined the staff of the Berliner Tageblatt newspaper, and was its editor-in-chief from 1906 to 1933. In 1918, he was one of the founders of the German Democratic Party, but left in 1926 in protest against German liberalism’s failure to draw a dividing line against the right wing. He grew increasingly unpopular with German nationalists, as he had spoken out against German annexations during World War I. Wolff worked towards reconciliation with France and was a foreign policy advisor to Gustav Stresemann and Heinrich Brüning. In March 1933, he emigrated to Switzerland via Austria, and a year later to the South of France. He was a regular contributor to important exile magazines. He received an entry visa for the USA in the fall of 1941, but this expired before he could get there. In May 1943, Theodor Wolff was handed over to the National Socialists by the Italian occupation authorities, put into Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and later transferred to the Berlin police prison. Theodor Wolff died in the Berlin Jewish Hospital after an operation on September 23, 1943.