Karl Heinz was raised in a refined, well-to-do Viennese family surrounded by art, music and science.
Importantly, his father introduced him to botany, specimen collecting and how to carefully observe nature - activities that would shape his life and career.
[1] He accompanied his father on botanical excursions around Vienna, and learnt how to prepare and handle specimens, interpret labels and identify handwriting for material they brought back to a small private herbarium within their house.
[1] During this time, he began writing a thesis that revised part of the genus Rumex, and also worked as a paid demonstrator under Richard Wettstein in Vienna's Institute of Botany.
[4] Despite an economic recession, he continued to work in the Department of Botany after graduating in volunteer or low-paid roles.
[5] In 1937, he was appointed provisional scientific assistant at the Natural History Museum in Vienna, where he would work for almost 35 years until his retirement in 1971.
[6] He also met and exchanged ideas with prominent contemporaries such as Heinrich Carl Haussknecht and Joseph Friedrich Nicolaus Bornmüller.
[7] Following the Anschluss, in which Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1838, Rechinger was submitted to basic military training before serving as a clerk.
[9] After the war, he continued to work at the Natural History Museum and also wrote several papers, including "Phytogeographia aegea".
[12] Rechinger was also a lecturer of botany at the University of Vienna, and in 1956–57 was a visiting professor in Baghdad, where he founded a herbarium.