Nider was born in Missolonghi in approximately 1865, the son of the military doctor Franz Xaver Nieder[1],[2] one of the many Bavarians who had come to Greece with King Otto.

[2] Subsequently, Nider served for eight years in the Austro-Hungarian Geodetic Mission to Greece, which laid the foundations of the Greek Army's own Geographic Service.

[2] In 1910–14, he served as head of the Personnel Office of the Army, and as chief of staff of the rear area and support troops during the First Balkan War.

[2] In December 1918, he was given command of I Army Corps, which soon after participated in the Allied intervention in Russian Civil, fighting the Bolsheviks in the Crimea and Odessa.

[2] On 2 June 1919, he was appointed head of the Greek Army of Asia Minor for the zone around the city of Smyrna (İzmir).