Born in Vienna on 18 May 1924, Wolfgang Rindler was the son of a lawyer. In 1938, his mother sent him to England through the auspices of the Kindertransport rescue of Jewish children from Germany and Austria. He gained his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University of Liverpool and his PhD from Imperial College London. From 1956 to 1963 he taught at Cornell University.