Education
In 1929, the family moved to Vienna, where she completed various studies at the University of Vienna without graduating.
In 1929, the family moved to Vienna, where she completed various studies at the University of Vienna without graduating.
Born in Graz, Mühringer suffered a serious illness, when she was seven years old. After being bed-ridden for months, she had to learn how to walk again. During this period, she discovered the world of books, especially fairy tales, which provided her with exciting new experiences, often affecting her own poetry in later life.
After the war, Mühringer settled in Salzburg, where she made a living translating from English, and taking on secretarial work and proof reading for publishing houses.
She met the writer Hans Weigel, who persuaded her to move to Vienna, and became her mentor. In 1954, he published some of her poems in his collection, Stimmen der Gegenwart (Voices from the Present).
In 1976, she published her own rather different version of the fairy tale The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids by the Brothers Grimm, known as a fairy tale called, Der Wolf und die sieben Geißlein (English version as "The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids"), which is part of the children"s book Update on Rumpelstiltskin and other Fairy Tales by 43 Authors, which is compiled by Hans-Joachim Gelberg, illustrated by Willi Glasauer, and published by Beltz & Gelberg. In 2001, she was awarded the Austrian Prize for Children"s and Young Adult Literature (Österreichischer Kinderund Jugendbuchpreis).
Despite her relatively few publications, the Austrian writer Gerhard Ruiss commented that there was absolutely no doubt Doris Mühringer was one of "the most important contributors to Austrian poetry over the last few decades".
A member of the international Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists association Club, and of the Austrian PODIUM, she moved in literary circles, took part in open readings, and, in 1969, went on a lecture tour to the United States.