Alphons Lhotsky studied history, art history, geography and philosophy and was a member of the Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung (Institute of Austrian Historical Research). In 1925 he obtained his doctorate with a dissertation on the thirteenth-century Tabula formarum Curie Episcopi. After graduation, he carried out research for foreign scholars before obtaining a position in the public education department of the Federal Ministry of Education. He was able to continue his own research at the same time. From 1927 to 1929 he classified Dr. Brettauer's medal collection in the Coin Collection at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and worked on the Neue Österreichische Biographie. In July 1938, he was assigned to the Kunsthistorisches Museum as head of the library and repro department and also to perform administrative tasks. He worked on a multi-volume history of the museum published in 1941 and 1945. He was not enlisted into the Wehrmacht on account of a chronic illness. In 1945 he habilitated at the University of Vienna in Austrian and medieval history. He became an extraordinary professor in 1946 and an ordinary professor in 1951. In 1946 he was a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences, becoming an ordinary member in 1950. In 1964 he was awarded the Österreichisches Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst I. Klasse (Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art 1st Class).