Fiedler studied at the Fürstenschule in Meissen and then law at the university in Heidelberg, Berlin and Leipzig between 1856 and 1861. He passed his states exam in 1865. After only briefly practicing, Fiedler used his private fortune to travel in Europe and the Middle East beginning in 1866. Italy remained his home base in these travels. There, he met the German master artists including Hans von Marées, whom he subsidized, Adolf Hildebrand, Arnold Bocklin, Anselm Freuerbach and later Franz von Lehnbach and Hans Thoma.