David Flusser was born in Vienna on September 15, 1917. He grew up in Przibram, middle Bohemia, Czechoslovakia and attended the University of Prague.

Flusser immigrated to the Land of Israel, then known as the Mandate Palestine in 1939. He did a doctorate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem which he completed in 1957. He taught in there for many years

Flusser died in Jerusalem on September 15, 2000, on his 83rd birthday.

Flusser was a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and received the Israel Prize in 1980, for his contributions to the study of Jewish history.