Friedrich Rosen came from a family with roots in provincial Lippe-Detmold and Great Britain. His grandfather, Friedrich Ballhorn-Rosen, was a high official in the principality of Lippe-Detmold. Both his father, Georg Rosen (1820-1891), and his uncle, Friedrich August Rosen (805-1837), were distinguished orientalists. At the age of twenty-two his uncle became Professor for Oriental Studies at the newly-founded University of London. Georg Rosen joined Prussia’s diplomatic service and worked in the consular section in the Middle East and on the Balkans. Born in Leipzig, Friedrich Rosen spent many years of his childhood in Jerusalem, where his father was consul (1852-1867). Rosen grew up in Jerusalem in a multilingual environment (German, English, Arabic, Turkish). He studied new and oriental languages in Berlin, Leipzig, Göttingen and Paris, and worked for some time as a private teacher in the house of the Vice-King of India, Lord Dufferin.

Friedrich Rosen had a fondness for oriental literature and popular cultures. During the mission to Ethiopia, he developed a particular interest in Somali oral poetry. Friedrich Rosen writes briefly on it in Felix Rosen’s travel account. He was, however, first and foremost an applied orientalist. In 1887 he began to teach Persian and Urdu (Hindustani) at the newly-established Seminary for Oriental Languages in Berlin. Following a clash with the director, he joined the consular section of the diplomatic service in 1890. Rosen worked for the general consulate in Beirut and for the German legation in Teheran. In 1898 he opened a consulate in Baghdad. Following the journey of Emperor William II (1898) to Jerusalem, Rosen is appointed consul there. At the end of 1900, he is assigned to the political department of the Foreign Office as a specialist on the Middle East. In autumn 1904, Rosen is called to lead the German delegation to Addis Ababa. On his way back home he receives the message that he has been appointed the new German legate in Tangier. In 1910 he is made envoy to Bukarest. Lisbon follows in 1912. During the First World War, Rosen disagrees with the adventurous policy of the German Empire that plans to recruit jihadist (holy war) movements in the Islamic world as allies of the German cause. After Germany's declaration of war on Portugal in 1916, he is allowed to return safely to Germany. He is then appointed German envoy to The Hague. In this capacity he mediates the exile of William II to the Netherlands in 1918.

In May 1921, Rosen becomes German Foreign Minister. After the conclusion of a peace treaty with the United States (August 1921), Rosen leaves public service. From now on he concentrates on academic work and translations. Up to 1934 he is also head of the German Orientalist Society (Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft), the collective body of German orientalists. Rosen’s most popular translation is a German version of Omar Khayyam’s Rubayyat , which has appeared in many editions. Friedrich Rosen died in Peking in 1935 following a broken leg while visiting his son Georg, who also worked as a diplomat.

From 1933 onwards Friedrich Rosen experiences open anti-semitic propaganda. Partly due to the activities of Arnold Holtz. Friedrich Rosen’s mother was British and Jewish. His son Georg Rosen is forced to leave the diplomatic service in 1938.