Fred Oberlander was born in Vienna. He started his career in 1930 at the Hakoah Vienna Jewish sports club and already in 1935 he won the gold medal at the European Championships. In the same year he participated in the World Championships, where he was listed as “stateless”, thus enabling him to compete against a wrestler representing the team of Nazi Germany. Having been selected to the Austrian National team to the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, he refused to participate in protest to the anti-Jewish persecutions in Nazi Germany.
Fred Oberland immigrated to Great Britain before WW2, where he continued his career. He was the captain of the English wrestling team at the 1948 Olympic Games in London. Over a career of twenty years, from 1930 to 1950, he won two Austrian junior titles, five French heavyweight titles, seven British heavy weight titles, and one Canadian heavyweight title. Following his immigration to Canada in late 1940s, Fred Oberland became active in the Jewish sports organizations in that country. He was the captain and flag bearer of the Canadian team at the 1950 Maccabiah Games, and at the 1953 Maccabiah Games he won the gold medal in the heavy weight competition. Fred Oberland was designated Outstanding Jewish World Athlete in 1954, an award grated to him by the Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. He was a member of the Canadian Amateur Wrestling Association and in 1974 was named to the Canadian Amateur Sports Hall of Fame. A section of Pierre Gildesgame Maccabiah Sport Museum in Israel is named in honor of Fred Oberlander.