Career
Birnbaum was the youngest son of Nathan Birnbaum, a Jewish philosopher, and Rosa Korngut. Reportedly, his art education consisted of only one month at a Berlin art school in 1913. He was severely injured during World War I. He illustrated a number of books, including works of Edgar Allan Poe, Lewis Carroll"s Through the Looking-Glass (Alice im Spiegelglass, Vienna, 1923), and his own Weltuntergang (1921).