Studied history at Karl-Franzenz-University Graz, PhD 2014. Research associate at the Institute of History (Contemporary History) at the University of Graz (2010-2017), at the House of Austrian History (2017-2019) and the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (2020-2021). External fellow at the Center Austria of the University of New Orleans (2013), curatorial activity at the Universalmuseum Joanneum. Lectureships at the Institute of History (Department of Contemporary History), Andrassy University Budapest, University of Klagenfurt, among others. Research focus on the cultural history of war, Nazi crimes and perpetrator research. Since January 2021 provenance researcher at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna on behalf of the Commission for Provenance Research. Member of Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung e.V.
Otto Brill, a chemist with a doctorate, was the second oldest of four children of the Jewish leather merchant Mori(t)z Brill and his wife Amalie, née Thein.