 In 1988, he became Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles.In 1998, Friedländer chaired the Independent Historical Commission (IHC) that was appointed to investigate the activities of the German media company Bertelsmann's under the Third Reich.The 800-page report, "Bertelsmann im Dritten Reich", written with Norbert Frei, Trutz Rendtorff, Reinhard Wittmann, was published in October 2002.