Both in Germany and abroad, Wolf, a polyglot, met with politicians, businessmen, and diplomats to promote an expanded role in world affairs for the newly founded German Empire.

He envisioned international trade as a key element in Germany's development as a world power and lobbied for increased exchange of German manufactured goods for raw materials from other countries, particularly China.

An ardent nationalist, he feared that the growing presence of Russians, Americans, and Japanese in China would limit the possibilities for German expansion there.

Wolf was a prolific writer, publishing narratives of travels in several books and in a number of newspaper articles, which appeared primarily in the Berliner Tageblatt.

The Chukchi collection, apparently assembled in the late nineteenth century, was officially received by the museum on 14 January 1899 (SMV Archives, 1899), as a single donation from Eugen Wolf, a German philanthropist and journalist.