[1] Kickbusch was born at Kolberg, in Pomerania, part of the Kingdom of Prussia, on January 25, 1841; he received a common school education; immigrated to America with his parents in 1857, and settled in the city of Milwaukee, but moved to Wausau in 1860, and became a lumberman.
In 1877 Kickbusch (a long-time volunteer firefighter) was elected president of the State Fireman's Association, an office he would hold for three years.
He was elected to the Marathon County Assembly seat as an Independent Greenbacker in 1877, with 977 votes to 799 for Democrat J. C. Clarke.
[2] He ran for re-election in 1878, but was unseated by Democratic former state senator John Ringle, who polled 1282 votes to 1226 for Kickbusch.
In 1893, he was appointed as the United States Consul for Stettin, in his native province of Pomerania, now part of the German Empire.