Bauer was born in Graz, Styria. His breakthrough play was Magic Afternoon in 1967, in which he portrays four youths who interrupt their lazy and boring afternoon by unmotivated outbreaks of violence and aggression (Magic Afternoon was adapted for the screen most recently by Catherine Jelski in 2000 as The Young Unknowns). After two more successes, Change (1969) and Gespenster (Ghosts, 1973), Bauer's plays became increasingly surreal and experimental. Bauer though resisted any labelling by academia and critics alike until his death. Most of his plays during 1967 and 1990 were translated into English by Martin Esslin, remembered for coining the term Theatre of the Absurd. In the late 1970's and early 1980's San Francisco's Magic Theatre performed almost each season a play of Bauer, 1993 his play Tadpoletigermosquitos at Mulligan's was premiered at New York's Ohio Theatre.

Wolfgang Bauer was a heavy smoker and drinker. After a series of cardiac operations, he died in his native Graz of heart failure.

Bauer's plays have been translated into 24 languages and have been performed in 35 countries. This is a complete list of his published works in German:

Plays

• Der Schweinetransport (1961)
• Maler und Farbe (1961)
• Batyscaphe 17-26 oder Die Hölle ist oben (1961)
• Totu-wa-botu (1961)
• Zwei Fliegen auf einem Gleis (1962)
• Katharina Doppelkopf (1962)
• Der Rüssel (1962)
• Mikrodramen (1962/63, 21 very short "unplayable plays", engl. title: Microdramas)
• Pfnacht (1963)
• Die Menschenfresser (1963)
• Party for Six (1964)
• Ende sogar noch besser als alles gut! (1965)
• Der Tod des Ingenieurs Leo Habernik aus Linz (1965)
• Magic Afternoon (1967)
• Change (1968/69)
• Film und Frau (1971, engl. title: "Shakespeare the Sadist")
• Silvester oder Das Massaker im Hotel Sacher (1971)
• Gespenster (1973, engl. title: Ghosts)
• Magnetkü�sse (1975, engl. title: Magnetic Kisses)
• Memory Hotel (1979/80, UA + ED 1980)
• Woher kommen wir? Was sind wir? Wohin gehen wir? (1981, engl. title: Singapore Sling)
• Das kurze Leben der Schneewolken (1982)
• Ein fröhlicher Morgen beim Friseur (1982, engl. title: A Wonderful Day at the Barbershop))
• Ein schrecklicher Traum (1986, an adaption of Shakespeare's A Midsummernight's Dream)
• Herr Faust spielt Roulette (1986)
• Das Lächeln des Brian dePalma (1988)
• Ach, armer Orpheus! (1989)
• Insalata mista (1992, engl. title: Tadpoltigermosquitos at Mulligan's)
• Die Kantine. Cappricio à la Habsburg. (1993)
• Die Menschenfabrik (1996)
• Skizzenbuch (1996)
• Café Tamagotchi (1998)
• Foyer (2004)

Libretti

• Magnet (1978)
• Café Museum - Die Erleuchtung. (1993)
• Das gestohlene Herz (2004)

Novel

• Der Fieberkopf (1967, engl. The Feverhead)

Poems

• Das stille Schilf. Ein schlechtes Meisterwerk: schlechte Texte mit schlechten Zeichnungen und einer schlechten Schallplatte. (1969)
• Das Herz (1981)

Radio Plays

• Zisterne (1961)
• Die Entfernung (1972, alt. title: 1431)
• Dream Jockey (1998)

Screenplays

• Die Edeggerfamilie (1970)
• Häuptling der Alpen (1974)
• Es war nicht die Nachtigall (1974)
• Reise zum Gehirn (1975, adaption of Bauers novel Der Fieberkopf (The Feverhead))
• In Zeiten wie diesen (1983)
• 22, schwarz... (1987)
• Der Weihnachtstraum (1994)

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