Hermann Hakel was born in Vienna as a son of a Jewish self-employed craftsman. He attended the Realschule and later studied arts and crafts in Vienna. From 1931 to 1939 he was a freelance writer in his native city, then from 1935 to 1937 he worked for the Anzengruber publishing house in Vienna.
Following the Anschluss he was imprisoned twice for short periods of time in 1938. In June 1939 Hakel immigrated to Italy and settled in Fiume (now Rijeka, in Croatia). From 1940 to 1944 he was interned in various Fascist detention camps in Arezzo, Alberobello, Campo Eboli, and Ferramonti. Hakel was a member and as of 1944 vice chairman of Free Austrian Movement in Bari. In March 1945 Hakel emigrated to Palestine, but in August 1947 he went to Rome.
In 1948 Hermann Hakel settled in Vienna, one of the few Jewish authors who returned to Austria after World War II. He resumed his work as writer and also contributed to various newspapers and journals: he was chief editor of the magazine Lynkeus, Vienna, from 1949 to 1950. From 1953 to 1967 he was editor of Juedisches Echo, the periodical of the Jewish community, and in 1958-1959 he was head reader at Sefer Publishers.
H. Hakel was a member of Union of Young Austrian Writers (1934-1938); of P.E.N. (Poets, Essayists and Novelists) Austria (1948). He was a poet, translator from Yiddish and Hebrew, and also editor of contributor to various anthologies.
Hakel’s main works include: Ein Kunstkalender in Gedichten (Vienna, 1936), and a number of poetry volumes Und Bild wirt Wort, (Vienna, 1947); An Bord der Erde (Vienna, 1948); Zwischenstation: 50 Geschichten (1949); Ein Totentanz (Stuttgart, Vienna, St. Gallen, 1950); Hier und Dort (Vienna, Munich, Basel, 1955).