Born in Dresden, Kaden came from a Freiberg miner family. In 1856 he was born as one of two sons – Richard's brother became a major – of the ministerial treasurer Moritz Ferdinand Kaden (d. 1921) and his wife Emilie Geyer in the royal Saxon capital and residence city of Dresden. His father, who had initially been a miner himself, then served as a tambour in the Royal Saxon Army. As a soldier he experienced the German revolutions of 1848–1849. On leaving the army, he followed a superior into the management of a private railway company. After nationalisation, he made it to the ministry in Dresden as a sub-civil servant.