Military boarding school at Eisenstadt; 1897 studies briefly at military college in Vienna for a quarter; switched to engineering at the German Technical University in Brno and finished his studies in 1901; 1902/03 volunteer at Materialprüfungsanstalt in Stuttgart; 1903/04 started studying philosophy, psychology, mathematics and physics in Berlin; during this time he began to work on Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törless (The Confusions of Young Torless), which was published in 1906; invented a colour wheel for psychological experiments (Variationskreisel); 1908 gained doctorate with a dissertation about Ernst Mach; made decision against an academic career in favor of his authorship; 1911 employment first as a librarian at the Technical University of Vienna and then as a editor (Neue Rundschau) in Berlin; reserve officer in Tirol during World War I; editor of Soldaten-Zeitung in Bozen (1916/17) and Heimat in Wien (1918); 1930 first part of Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (The Man Without Qualities) was published; 1931-33 lived and worked in Berlin; 1938 emigration from Vienna to Zurich; lived in Geneva from 1939 until his death in 1942.
