[1] Bronner was born in Lyndoch and educated at St Peter's College and the University of Adelaide, where he graduated BA in 1912, then Balliol College, Oxford, where he read Philosophy and Social Sciences, and befriended Aldous Huxley.
He enlisted with the London Rifle Brigade on 26 April 1917 and served in Europe, where he was wounded but able to remain with his unit until cessation of hostilities.
On his return to Adelaide he lectured for the Workers' Educational Association then in 1921 was appointed assistant director of tutorial classes, University of Melbourne.
In 1928 he moved to Germany, where at the University of Freiburg he studied under Professor Heussel[4] and lectured as Reader in English,[5] and developed an abiding love of the German language and its literature.
[1] Bronner married Pauline Berkeley "Pauli" Bartels (1894– ) in England on 7 April 1917.