Öhlinger published 23 books and more than 350 scholarly articles and appeared as a frequent commentator on legal issues in the Austrian news media.
Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen called him Austria's "operating system" during the turbulent times of May 2019.
[2] In his adolescence, Öhlinger wanted to become an art historian; he spent much of his spare time collecting and cataloging reproductions of classical paintings.
He grew bored with art history quickly, a fact he would later blame on oversaturation stemming from his intense engagement with the subject in his teenage years.
He began work on a doctoral dissertation in philosophy but eventually abandoned it out of disillusionment with the job prospects in the field.
[2][3] Shortly before formally graduating, in late 1965, Öhlinger had secured employment as an assistant professor with the University of Innsbruck.
Öhlinger left the Academy in 1995 when the University of Vienna offered him the position of Head of Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law.