In 1913, he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, where he was a pupil of J. Mehoffer, J. Wojnarski, and J. Bukowski. At the Jagiellonian University, he studied art history under professors Marian Sokołowski and Jerzy Mycielski. In the years 1921-1939, he created prints, exlibrises and dealt with book ornamentation. We learn about his military career, as well as his life parallel to his artistic work, in the publication W kraju i w świecie - kartki z życiorysu [In the Country and the World - pages from a biography] (Krzysztof Ludwik Birkenmajer - Polish History Museum).

Alfred Józef Birkenmayer fought as an artilleryman in Józef Piłsudski's First Brigade of the Legions (1914-1918), was commander of the Podkarpacie District of the Polish Military Organisation, and took part in the battles for eastern Małopolska. As an active duty officer, he also fought in the Polish-Soviet War of 1920 and in the Third Silesian Uprising. With the rank of captain, and later major of artillery, he was active in the diplomatic service (including in Berlin). He was twice a member of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, editor-in-chief of "Polski Zbrojna", director of the Ekspress telegraphic agency, deputy director of the League of State Air Defence and director of the Polish Radio. He participated as an active duty officer in the September campaign and then reached Casablanca via Romania, where he was consul and head of military intelligence during the war.

In 1942, Birkenmayer found himself in Canada and returned to artistic creation. From 1942 to 1949 he worked in Ottawa as chief artist for the Pritchard-Andrews Co. engraving and bronzing company. He designed plaques and commemorative medals. Among other things, he made commemorative plaques for Canadian soldiers who died during the war. Plaques designed by Birkenmayer in honour of Canadian airmen who helped Poland were hung in the chapel of the airbase in Ottawa, as well as in Warsaw, on the front wall of the military hospital.

In 1949, the artist took up the position of chief draughtsman at the bronzing and engraving company Bernard Cairns Ltd. and moved to Toronto. In 1951 he began working independently, mainly in graphic design, producing illustrations for Canadian and Polish publications. In 1953, a Church Art Exhibition was prepared at Hart House in Toronto, where Birkenmayer exhibited his watercolour 'Our Lady of Ostra Brama'. The artist participated in an exhibition of Polish art organised in 1957 as part of the Polish Week. In the same year, the artist donated to the Polish Institute ten reproductions of old Polish engravings from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, which he had purchased at an antique shop in Toronto.

In the early 1960s, the artist withdrew from artistic work due to his health and devoted himself to art appraisal and the conservation of paintings. Birkenmayer's work was promoted by Bronka Michałowska, who kept many of the artist's works in her private archive.

For his wartime merits, Alfred Birkenmayer was awarded the Virtuti Militari Cross, the Cross of Valour three times, and the Golden Cross of Independence with Swords. The website ekslibrispolski.pl lists 60 of Birkenmayer's ex-librises; the Museum of Papermaking in Duszniki-Zdrój has ex-librises of the 1926 Mickiewiciana, Alfred Birkenmayer's collection; three 1929 ex-librises are displayed on the Allegro Archive.