After being a cadet he joined the Prussian Army in 1881 as a Fähnrich, and a year later was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry.

He entered the Prussian Staff College in 1890 and was promoted to premier lieutenant in the same year.

Von Below left the staff on 13 September 1906, when he was appointed commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 91st Infantry Regiment.

He was awarded the prestigious Pour le Mérite on 24 November 1917, and received the oak leaves on 13 October 1918.

On the Tannenbergtag, the commemoration day of the Battle of Tannenberg, in 1939 he got the character of a General der Infanterie.