His godfather was Diether Posser, a lawyer, SPD politician and erstwhile Minister for Justice and Finance for North Rhine-Westphalia.
Of these, his most noteworthy appearance was in the film Zoff (1971) in which he played alongside well-known actors such as Jürgen Prochnow and Claus Theo Gärtner.
From 1985 to 1987 Krebs achieved cult status with his comedy series Sketchup in which he took on a wide range of different characters, accompanied at first by Beatrice Richter and then by Iris Berben.
In 1986 he played the hairdresser "Hupsi" in Helmut Dietl's successful series Kir Royal; in 1992 he took on a role in the catastrophe film Moebius [de] by Matti Geschonneck.
That same year, he entered the German music charts: for a while he became famous as "Martin", a naive tree-hugger in a hand-knitted Fair Isle jumper with straggly hair and prominent teeth.
[1] Nonetheless, at this time, he developed a new character which he played on stage: "Herr Krups", a funny sales rep with horn-rimmed glasses and wonky teeth.
Playing slimeball shipping agent Werner Kampmann he appeared alongside Ralf Richter and others in this film directed by Peter Thorwarth [de].