Qualtinger was born in Vienna, First Austrian Republic to a secondary education teacher and his wife, stemming from the bourgeois class of the Bildungsbürgertum, his father being a follower of the German Nazi movement.

Afterwards he initially studied medicine and literature, but quit university to become a newspaper reporter and film critic for local press, while beginning to write his own texts for cabaret performances and theater plays.

In 1949, Qualtinger's first theatrical play, Jugend vor den Schranken (Youth in front of Barriers), was staged in Graz and caused furor for portraying teenagers and their rebellious behaviour.

"Herr Karl", a grocery store clerk, is telling the story of his life and deeds to an imaginary colleague (the camera/spectator) – from the days of the First Austrian Republic after the end of the Habsburg empire (1918), leading up to the transformation into the Austrofascist regime (1934) and the Anschluss (annexation) by Nazi Germany (1938), followed by World War II and finally the occupation by Allied forces until the mid-1950s, seen from the perspective of one who is a prototypical opportunist.

Beginning with the 1970s, Qualtinger frequently performed recital tours of his own and other texts, including excerpts from Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf and Karl Kraus' Die letzten Tage der Menschheit (The Last Days of Mankind).