[6] Before the first World War, Cahén moved in German avant-garde art circles, contributing translations of Apollinaire to the Expressionist periodical Der Sturm.
[7][8] As a young critic, he saw a connection between politics and art, suggesting in 1914 that the First World War would be fought over the future of German Expressionism, rather than Belgium's neutrality or the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria of June 1914.
[9] As a civil servant in the German Legation in Copenhagen 1916 - 1918, Cahén became "personal advisor" to Count Brockdorff-Rantzau, High Commissioner at the Versailles Peace Conference.
[14] Cahén also joined the New York-based group the German-American Council for the Liberation of Germany From Nazism, later renamed Association of Free Germans.
[12] With the outbreak of the Second World War, Fritz Max Cahén was stuck in the United States and he lived there until 1954, when he returned to Germany and resumed his civil service work and writing.