He was professor at Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach and the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
Schmidt was educated in biology, chemistry, physics and then philosophy and history of art at the University of Tübingen.
Since 1997 he is a professor for language and aesthetics at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach.
As guest lecturer and/or a guest professor he worked 1984 to 1997 at the University of Klagenfurt, 1991/1992 at the Graz University of Technology, as well as at the International Centre for Culture and Management (ICCM) in Salzburg.
Burghart Schmidt lives since 1997 in Offenbach am Main (near Frankfurt) and Vienna.