After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Friedrich, known as "Fritz" von Ostini, pursued a career as a writer in the newspaper industry, where he soon made his mark as a poet, humorist, and serial writer. He became a permanent contributor to the Münchener neueste Nachrichten in 1887, then editor-in-chief of the art and literature magazine Jugend, founded by Georg Hirth in 1896. The latter was to become the main press organ of the Munich Secession. With the satirical play Grey & Co. staged by Paul Brann's Marionetten-Theater Münchener Künstler, he contributed to the extensive corpus of puppet productions that had already emerged in pre-war Bohemian circles.