After a few semesters at the Technical University in Vienna, Kirnig moved to the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts, where he was taught by Franz Cižek and Bertolt Löffler. He remained faithful to the Vienna School of Applied Arts as an assistant teacher, assistant and later teacher of the class for use, illustrations, and fashion graphics from 1935 to 1953 and 1935/1936 also became its director. In 1951 he became associate professor at the University of Applied Arts and in 1955 received the Vienna Prize for Applied Arts.