He went to the Royal Mercantile College in Chemnitz and in 1849 to the Bergakademie Freiberg as an external student.

In 1858 he obtained the doctorate in mathematics at the University of Leipzig under August Ferdinand Möbius (Die Zentralprojektion als geometrische Wissenschaft).

[6] Fiedler made himself known by editing the translation of the textbooks of analytic, projective, and algebraic geometry by George Salmon (in the 19th century known in Germany as "Salmon-Fiedler").

He obtained in 1884 the Steiner price of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, and in 1907 the Honorary degree of the Vienna University of Technology was awarded to him.

His son Ernst (1861–1954) was professor of mathematics and rector of the "Oberrealschule" (today Kantonsschule Rämibühl) in Zurich.