Stumm was born in the Free City of Frankfurt, but was brought to his Australia by his parents at the age of 2 and raised in Toowoomba, Queensland, where he was educated at public schools.

[4][5] Stumm ran against Fisher for his Gympie seat as in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland at the 1896 colonial election, contesting as a Ministerialist, and won.

However, he retired from parliament in 1899 after only one term, citing a need to attend to his business interests and his frustration with "the growing tendency to make the Legislative Assembly a mere House of Talk".

[11][12] In 1913, he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the Commonwealth Liberal Party member for the new seat of Lilley and was re-elected in 1914.

[1] Stumm encountered substantial prejudice during World War I as a consequence of his German birth, and he spoke out publicly in 1917 about the "humiliating treatment" he had received.