After his studies at the Deutsche Technische Hochschule in Prague from 1929 bis 1935, Josef Kaiser worked as an architect in Weimar and Berlin. After the war, Kaiser was trained as a singer, but from 1951 he worked again architecture. In 1962 Josef Kaiser was the head of the design collective for the second section of the construction of the Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin (from Strausberger Platz to Alexanderplatz). In this role he was responsible for the design and construction of the Kosmos and International Cinemas as well as of the Cafe Moskau.