[3] Between 1894 and 1902, Friedlaender studied medicine, philosophy, German literature, archaeology, and art history in Munich, Berlin, and Jena.

He approached the contemporary problems of his day through the lens of Kantian philosophy, in the footsteps of his teacher, the neo-Kantian Ernst Marcus.

His most philosophical work, Die schoepferische Indifferenz (1918), Friedlaender built upon Kant's ideas to move beyond the classical dualism of subject and object in a purified, absolute self.

He wrote several novels and countless poems and grotesques which were widely published in Expressionist periodicals such as Der Sturm and Die Aktion.

He was part of the Berlin expressionist circle of Herwarth Walden, Else Lasker-Schueler, and Samuel Lublinski and an attraction at their public readings.