Career

A Hamburg electrical contractor made unemployed during the Weimar-period Depression, he left Germany to seek work in the Cypriot copper mines, departing from Ulm and travelling south via the Danube. En route, he changed plan and decided to "see the world", continuing to Australia via the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia. He remained in prisoner-of-war camps for the duration of the war.

On release, Speck worked as an opal cutter at Lightning Ridge, before moving to Sydney and establishing a successful career as an opal merchant.