Theobald Mann was born in Bad Kissingen on November 28, 1910 as the fifth of the six children of the butcher Lazarus Mann and his wife Cilly, née Löwenberger. The family lived in Weingasse where Theobald’s father ran a butchery. 

Between September 1920 and April 1924, Theobald attended Kissingen Realschule, the predecessor of contemporary Jack-Steinberger-Gymnasium.

He continued the family tradition and apprenticed to become a butcher. In May 1927, he moved to Marburg, later to Berlin and returned to his hometown in June 1931. Here he stayed till September 1933, before he checked out for the capital of the Reich again. From January to August 1934 was the last time he lived in Bad Kissingen, before he emigrated to the USA via Hamburg in December 1934. 

There, he first lived with his uncle Leon Mann in Mount Vernon/ New York. After his emigration he called himself Teddy Mann. According to the US Census of 1940, he lived with his mother and his brothers Kurt and Justin in a shared apartment in Manhattan at that time. His sister Irene also succeeded in fleeing to New York. Their siblings Max and Luzie, however, became victims of the Shoa.

Only little is known about his further life. Theobald Mann lived in New York and earned his living as a photographer. He died in March 2005 at the very old age of 94 in Jamaica, Queens/ New York.