His talent as a writer won praise from an unlikely quarter: In 1939 Joseph Goebbels recommended his Propaganda Ministry staff to study Wolff's contributions in back numbers of the newspaper that he had edited.

[1][5] During these years Wolff also found time to write some early novels, inspired by Theodor Fontane whom he greatly admired, and several plays which were staged in Berlin,[1] though in his memoirs he would later describe these as "not particularly distinguished".

Emperor Frederick died in June 1888 and Wolff embarked on an itinerant career, writing pieces and sending them in to Berlin by telegraph from, successively, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Italy.

[1] His powerful prose was notably on display in the Monday editions of the paper for which he wrote the lead article, frequently exhorting fellow citizens to political participation.

In respect of foreign policy, he quickly positioned the Tageblatt in opposition to "great power politics", imperial and military assertiveness and the risk of international isolation to which these were leading Germany.

On domestic issues the paper's attitude under Wolff favoured civil rights and a liberal-democratic approach,[6] advocating a "parliamentarisation" ("Parlamentarisierung") of the constitution and vigorously opposing the "Dreiklassenwahlrecht"[1] in force for the Prussian parliament's lower house which had been introduced in 1849 and which was, by the beginning of the twentieth century, widely perceived as a badly flawed application of the democratic ideal.

At this time Wolff promoted numerous writers including Victor Auburtin whose individualistic approach he valued and who played an important part in defining the newspaper's liberal profile.

Wolff reacted by refusing to publish anything for several months, which was picked up and used abroad in the savage propaganda battle that was a major element in the increasingly desperate conduct of the First World War.

Wolff refused to compromise his editorial line, and the Berliner Tageblatt continued to promote the politically toxic view that the only route to a lasting peace was for Germany to come to an understanding with France.

[8] In November 1918 Theodor Wolff was one of the founders of the German Democratic Party (Deutsche Demokratische Partei, DDP),[9] committed to individual freedom and social responsibility.

The resignation came in response to the acceptance by a large number of the party's Reichstag Members of tightened censorship laws against so-called dirty and trashy literature.

His name started to appear on the death lists of various radical-right and populist groups, causing Wolff to become anxious that he might share the fate of Walther Rathenau, the generally popular Jewish Foreign Minister and fellow DDP member who had been shot dead by a gang of three extremists in June 1922.

His counterpart at the right wing Hugenberg media group, editor in chief Friedrich Hussong, stirred up popular hatred of Wolff, whom he identified as a representing the liberal metropolitan press.

In March 1933 the Tageblatt's proprietor (who himself, being Jewish, was effectively deprived of control over his business later in the month), removed Wolff from his editorship responding to political pressure[4] following the flight from Berlin.

The coastal strip along the south-eastern part of France including, from late 1942, Nice was in the process of being annexed by Italy, and on 23 May 1943 Theodor Wolff was arrested by the Italian civil authorities.