Freelance Czech scholar. She studied Romance and Slavonic studies in Vienna and Prague. From 1976 to 2008 she lectured on Czech literature and culture at the University of Vienna. She has published several anthologies (e.g. The Magic of a Banished Idyll. The Image of Vienna in Czech Literature in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Vienna 2004). Since 1993 she has translated more than 30 books into German, mainly poetry and prose (I. Binar, I. Blatný, P. Borkovec, J. Deml, B. Grögerová, Z. Hejda, P. Hůlová, J. Jedlička, P. Kolmačka, J. Neruda, J. Skácel, A. Zonová). She has translated three novels together with her daughter Julie Hansen-Löve (J. Kratochvil and M. Pilátová), and poetry by K. Rudčenková.
Among her awards are the Premia Bohemica (1999), the Austrian State Prize for Literary Translation 2000 and Gratias Agit 2007.