Oda Schaefer was the daughter of Eberhard Kraus, one of the early Baltic writers and journalist, and his wife Alice Baertels, who came from a merchant family in Estonia.
During the Third Reich she was with Lange and Günter Eich in the circle around the literary magazine The Column, which was affiliated with Inner Immigration, a movement of writers and artists who were opposed to National Socialism but did not leave Germany.
Although Shaefer and her husband were opponents of the Nazi regime, and helped Jews by hiding them for a while, at the same time they wrote for officially sanctioned publications.
Schaefer's literary work consists primarily of poetry in traditional forms inspired by the naturalist poet Wilhelm Lehmann and George von Vring.
Schaefer's biography inspired her grand-nephew Chris Kraus for his feature film The Poll Diaries, with Paula Beer in the lead role.