[1][2] Thimig was the founding father of one of Austria's most famous theatrical families, but was born in Dresden, the son of a shoemaker.

He worked in a grocery store and attended a trade school before making several appearances on stage as an amateur in his home town.

Within only two years, via the theatres in Zittau, Kamenz and Freiberg, Saxony, and the Lobe-Theater in Breslau, he obtained an engagement at the Burgtheater, and arrived in Vienna in 1874 to take it up.

Thimig began as a "shy lover" type, but soon developed into both comic and serious character roles, and his career soon took off.

As early as 1881 he was appointed Hofrat, in 1897 he directed his first play, and from 1912 to 1917 he was also director of the Burgtheater, from which he had long since obtained a contract for life plus entitlement to a pension.