[2] Upon the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Krebs volunteered for service in the Austro-Hungarian Army and was assigned to the 4th Infantry Regiment.

Also in 1918, Krebs was named the general manager of the DNSAP in the Sudetenland and the editor-in-chief of the Nationalsozialistischen Korrespondenz in Bohemia, positions which he would continue to hold until 1931.

In November, prosecutors sought permission from the parliament to proceed against him and, on 28 February 1933, Krebs was indicted, then arrested and imprisoned for several months.

He joined the SA as an SA-Obersturmbannführer and, on 30 January 1934, was employed as a press advisor in the Reich Interior Ministry, under Reichsminister Wilhelm Frick.

In November 1934, he was made head of the Professional Publications Library in the ministry, and was appointed a Regierungsrat (Government Councilor) in February 1935.

In October 1937, Franz von Papen was rumored to be leaving his post as German ambassador to Austria and Krebs was the preferred choice as his replacement among Austrian Nazis.

[8] From August to October 1938, Krebs headed the Sudeten German Refugee Relief Program in Berlin, receiving a promotion to Ministerialrat (Ministerial Councilor) in the Interior Ministry on 27 September.

[9] Between the Munich agreement of 29 September 1938 when the Sudetenland was ceded to Germany and the end of the year, over 150,000 inhabitants fled the area, including Czechs and Germans who were defined as Jews under the Nuremberg Laws.

[10] Krebs was charged on 15 November 1938 with conducting the government affairs of the Regierungsbezirk Aussig [de], one of the three administrative regions established within the Reichsgau Sudetenland.

[11] During his tenure, Jews living in Aussig were systematically persecuted and, on New Year's Eve in 1938, the Synagoge (Ústí nad Labem) [de] was attacked and burned down.

On 20 May 1943, Konrad Henlein the Gauleiter in the Reichsgau Sudetenland, nominated Krebs to be his deputy but this was vetoed by Martin Bormann, the chief of the Party Chancellery, and the post went to Hermann Neuburg [de] in the fall of that year.

[13] After the end of World War II in Europe, Krebs was arrested by Czechoslovak authorities in May 1945 and incarcerated at Pankrác Prison.