New Zealand Germanist. After fleeing Austria, he worked as a farmer in New Zealand from 1939 to 1951; from 1951 to 1958, he worked at the adult education center and for the radio in Vienna; since 1959, he has been a lecturer; in 1964, he became a professor of German studies and head of the Department of German at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, From 1970 to 1985, he was a full professor of Modern German Philology in Tübingen.