Wolff was born the younger of two boys.[4] Wolff's British father, Herbert Arnold Jacob Wolff, was a GP,[3] who was born in Manchester to a British mother and his mother was Anna Samson, was the daughter of a lawyer. Wolff therefore had dual nationality. Herbert Wolff was a doctor, who served in the German Army during World War I, and during the interwar period, lived as a comfortable family in Germany.[4]
Wolff's early schooling took place in Hamburg, and despite his Jewish background, was well received by his classmates.[4] However, when he turned 16, Wolff was sent to London to study at a Cram school, so that he could earn a place at Cambridge University to study Medicine, a position his brother Heinz already held.[3] In 1937, the whole family emigrated to England, but upon arriving, his father realised that his medical degree from the University of Strasbourg was not recognised in the UK.[4] So Herbert Arnold Jacob Wolff studied Medicine at School of Medical Sciences, University of Manchester while both his sons studied Medicine in Cambridge.[3] Wolff earned a place at Peterhouse college.[5]
In 1944, close to the end of World War II, Wolff joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, attaining the rank of Captain, and was in charge of a smallpox hospital.[3] When the theatre moved to Italy, Wolff found he was responsible for the caring of Italian prisoners of war.[4] When Wolff found that a prisoner was ill, they would be allowed home to their families, and Wolff found it was hard to maintain a doubtful view when ailments were often fictitious.[4]
During 1947, Wolff was demobilised.[3] When returning from war, Wolff had a chance meeting with a senior doctor, that resulted in Wolff taking a position at the University of Birmingham to train in paediatrics. Working under the consultant Sir Leonard Parsons, Wolff become a registrar.[3] In 1951, Wolff started work at the University of Birmingham becoming a lecturer in the Department of Child Health.[5] Wolf finished his academic career at Birmingham University as a Reader under Professor Sir Douglas Hubble.[2] During the period while he was attending the university, Wolff received laboratory training and the scientific basis of medicine. He discovered Abetalipoproteinemia, a disorder of blood lipids, that interferes with the normal absorption of fat and fat-soluble vitamins from food, and designed new special diets for babies with phenylketonuria, an inborn error of metabolism that results in decreased metabolism of the amino acidphenylalanine[3] Wolff also provided the first description of the genetic disorder, i.e. the chromosomal abnormality that leads to Edwards syndrome.[3][4][5] In 1960, Wolff along with several other co-authors wrote a paper on the condition.[6]
In 1965, Wolff moved to London and was appointed the second Nuffield Professor of Child Health at the Institute of Child Health and consultant paediatrician at Great Ormond Street Hospital and the University of London. The previous Nuffield Professor was Sir Alan Moncrieff.[3][4] Wolff was the first trained scientist to work within pediatrics, in a clinical chair in the UK, and used the position to push the scientific based treatment of babies and the very young.[4] During his time at the institute, Wolff turned was as essentially a collection of pre-war cottage hospitals into a world class centre for children.[3]
Smith, I.; Clayton, B.E.; Wolff, O.H. (17 May 1975). "New Variant of Phenylketonuria with Progressive Neurological Illness Unresponsive to Phenylalanine Restriction". The Lancet. 305 (7916): 1108–1111. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(75)92498-8. ISSN0140-6736. PMID49470. S2CID19404792.
HADORN, B; TARLOW, M. J.; LLOYD, J. K.; WOLFF, O. H. (1969). "Intestinal enterokinase deficiency". The Lancet. 1 (7599): 812–813. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(69)92071-6. PMID4180366.
Smith, Isabel; Beasley, Martin G.; Wolff, Otto H.; Ades, Anthony E. (March 1988). "Behavior disturbance in 8-year-old children with early treated phenylketonuria: Report from the MRC/DHSS phenylketonuria register". The Journal of Pediatrics. 112 (3): 403–408. doi:10.1016/S0022-3476(88)80320-2. ISSN0022-3476. PMID3346777.
^ abc"Professor Otto Herbert Wolff". The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. 2 March 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
^ abcdefghijklm"Otto Herbert Wolff". Munks Roll – Lives of the Fellows. XII. Royal College of Physicians: Royal College of Physicians. 21 August 2013. Archived from the original on 28 December 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
