Josef Hartwig completed an apprenticeship as a stonemason from 1893 to 1897. As early as 1897, when he was just 17 years old, he worked on the interior design of the well-known Elvira photo studio in Munich, which was designed by August Endell. He studied under Balthasar Schmidt and others at the Munich academy from 1904 to 1908. From 1914, he worked as a stonemason in Berlin (gravestones).