At the urging of his father, who was rattled by inflation, he began training as a banker, during which he heard lectures at the Friedrich-Wilhelm University during lunch before the actually intended studies.
After one year he abandoned being a banker, and continued his tutoring in math, politics, and history on free mornings before his philosophy studies.
With support of Rudolf Hilferding (a friend of Lederer), Speier was appointed as editor of social sciences at the Ullstein-Verlag in Berlin in 1929.
He served as Professor of sociology at the Deutsche Hochschule für Politik in 1931, and was also active in the worker education of the SPD.
His wife, Luise,[1] lost her position as a public health doctor in the Wedding neighborhood of Berlin, because she was Jewish.
He lived in Hartsdale, New York with his second wife, Margit Klein Speier, and died during a Sarasota, Florida vacation.