Ernst Jandl was born in Vienna in 1925, he took part in the World War II as a soldier and was imprisoned by the American army. In 1946 he started to study German Philology at Vienna University, he got his PhD in 1950 and then he worked as a teacher in a Secondary School.

In 1954 he started to publish what would later become a large experimental work, both poetry and prose.

He was awarded with the Austrian Literature Prize in 1968, with Kleist Prize in 1993 and with the Hölderling prize in 1995.

Ernst Jandl was a member of the Academy of German Language and Poetry of Darmstandt and he translated several works written by the American writer Gertrude Stein, leaving an important artistic work behind. He passed away in 2000.