Adolf Mošinsky was born and baptised in the parish church in Donji Miholjec. He was the son of Ignatius Mossinszky, a provost at the Valpovo and Donji Miholjac estates owned by Gustav Prandau and Maria Rohrer, and came from the Polish Nałęcz family on his father's side. Originally his family name was Moszyński; Adolf Mošinski's ancestors moved to Croatia from Sandomierz in the late 18th century. Adolf's father held the post. Joannes Nepomuk Danhelovsky, father of the well-known Croatian forestry expert Adolf Danhelovsky, was his godfather.

He completed his secondary education with a diploma from the Classical Lyceum in Zagreb in 1864, and then studied law in Vienna and Budapest. In 1888 he began his career in the city administration, in 1892 he was appointed Government Commissioner and later became Mayor of Zagreb, holding office for 12 years - three terms.

Under his rule, the city gained a modern water supply and sewage system, and the Medveščak stream was transformed into an underground canal. Zagreb's population increased by 30% and the city was enriched with important metropolitan and attractive monuments, including the Croatian National Theatre building, today's Mimar Museum, the Art Pavilion and many others. His reign also saw the completion of the Green Horseshoe project, the construction of the road to Sljemen, the Brestovac Spa on Medvednica and the Adolfovac mountain resort, named after Mošinsky.

Adolf Mošinsky was also the first mayor of Zagreb to wear a chain of honour, although he proposed that the cost of making it should be covered by an extraordinary grant rather than the city budget. He died in 1907. A street and park were named in his honour. His portrait by Celestin Medović (oil on canvas, 1906) is preserved in the Zagreb City Museum. On Varšavska Street, next to the Josip Juraj Strossmayer Primary School, a mural was created by the art collective Graffiti na Gradele. This work was created on the initiative of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland. Finally, in the Zagreb cemetery there was until recently a grave monument commemorating the Moszyński family, but unfortunately it was destroyed in 2022.