Herzfelde collaborated extensively with his more celebrated brother, Heartfield. Together with Grosz, they founded a magazine ‘die Pleite.’ Huelsenbeck and Baader were among fellow activists in the Berlin Dada scene from 1918. Through his Malik-Verlag (and encouraged by colleagues Piscator and Lasker-Schüler – she inspired his nom de plume as well as the business name), Herzfelde published work of Grosz and Brecht among others. Canetti worked as a translator for him. Brecht, Döblin, Mann, Feuchtwanger, Bloch and Herzfelde co-founded an anti-fascist publishing company while in exile in the U.S., before his return to Germany in 1949.