[1] In 1942 she studied art history at the University of Vienna, under Hans Sedlmayr and Karl Oettinger and received her PhD in 1947 under Karl Maria Swoboda on the architectural facade of the Viennese apartments from the 16th to the mid-18th century.
In 1956 she became a lecturer at University of Vienna and in the same year married historian Walter Wagner.
[1] In 1971 Renate Wagner-Rieger was appointed full professor at University of Vienna, she was the first woman in the history department to hold this position.
In 1968 she initiated the large-scale research project called "Wiener Ringstraße", also known as "The Ringstraße: Image of an Era: the expansion of the inner city of Vienna under Emperor Franz Joseph" which studied the ring road in the historic center of Vienna.
[citation needed] Renate Wagner-Rieger died in Vienna, after a brief illness at age 59 on 11 December 1980.