He went to Jan III Sobieski high school and, in the years 1909–1915 studied linguistics, history of Polish literature as well as classical philology, at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.

From 1929 until his retirement in 1962, he was professor of linguistics at Jagiellonian University, elected as its Rector for the first time just prior to the Nazi German invasion of Poland.

[4] On November 6, 1939, during the Sonderaktion Krakau, Lehr-Spławiński was arrested and interned by the Gestapo on the order of SS-Obersturmbannführer Bruno Müller; along with 184 professors and academics from three different universities in Kraków.

The Breslau Gestapo were unprepared for such a large transfer of prisoners and awaited permission to send them to the Buchenwald concentration camp.

[6][7] Lehr-Spławiński was among a group of Kraków academics released from custody in February 1940 as a result of an international protest involving prominent Italians including Benito Mussolini and the Vatican.