Bárány graduated in medicine from the University of Vienna in 1900. After study at German clinics he became assistant at the ear clinic of the University of Vienna and, in 1909, a lecturer on otological medicine. He devised new tests for detecting vestibular disease and for examining activities of the cerebellum and their relation to disturbances of equilibrium. Bárány served in the Austrian army in World War I and was taken prisoner by the Russians in 1915. He was a prisoner of war when the Nobel Prize was awarded to him that year. From 1917 until his death he taught at Uppsala University, where he was head of the ear, nose, and throat clinic.