Herbert Fiedler was born on September 17, 1891 in Leipzig and studied from 1910 at the Königliche Kunstakademie in Dresden. He spent a long time in Berlin and shorter periods in Paris, where he moved in artist circles. For example, he was friends with Georg Grosz and Max Beckmann. In Laren he lived somewhat in the shadows, but in Amsterdam he also maintained many contacts with fellow artists, for example through membership of De Onvangenen, the Hollandse Aquarellistenkring and the artists' society Arti et Amicitiae.

During and after the Second World War, Fielder and his wife had a (financially) difficult time, because foreign investments on which they previously lived had been blocked and Fiedler sold little or no work. Because he had exhibited with The Independents during the Second World War, Fiedler was even put in an internment camp for some time after the liberation and was subsequently banned from exhibiting.

Rehabilitation as an artist did come later. On the occasion of his seventieth birthday, Herbert Fiedler would have a major retrospective exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum. However, he died on February 27, 1962, before the exhibition was ready. The exhibition went on that year, but was not a jubilee, but a commemorative exhibition.