During the time before the Anschluss of Austria, i.e. the annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938, he worked at Viennese cabaret theaters. After his return from Switzerland, where he could stay in exile (1938-1945), he wrote critical reviews about theater plays for the Austrian newspapers Kurier and Neues Österreich. Jointly with Friedrich Torberg he was responsible for the boycott in Austrian theaters of Bertolt Brecht whom he refused because of Brecht's communist convictions.

Between 1951 and 1954, Hans Weigel edited the anthology Stimmen der Gegenwart (Voices from the Present), which fostered young writers. Today, his name is used by the Subsidy for Literatury of Lower Austria. Weigel adapted comedies by Johann Nepomuk Nestroy and translated Molière. He collaborated with the annual Nestroy Theater Festival on Burg Liechtenstein, whose art director is Elfriede Ott. In 1974 he published an essay, which made him a well-known critic of the use of language.