[1] As a result of the conflict with Arends, Roller decided to develop his own shorthand system which he published under the title "Vollständiger Leitfaden einer einfachen, in wenigen Stunden erlernbaren Stenographie für den Schul-, Korrespondenz- und parlamentarischen Gebrauch" (complete instructions to a simple, in a few hours learnable stenographic system for school, correspondence and parliament usage) on 1 October 1875.

In 1865, he became secretary-general of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein (one of the predecessors of the Social Democratic Party of Germany) but quit the job in 1868 because of differences in opinion.

He also attended the founding congress of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany in 1869 and chronicled the whole event using shorthand.

[1] Besides his work in the field of stenography, Roller published humor texts as well as merry poems and songs under his pen name Roland vom Hochplateau.

His body was buried at the "Friedhofspark Pappelallee", a cemetery founded by the religious humanist society of Berlin and his tomb stone is one of only few that remain there until today.