Jakob Sporrenberg was born in Düsseldorf, the son of a gardener, and attended the local Volksschule and vocational school from 1908 to 1919.

He next joined the Nazi Party and its paramilitary unit, the Sturmabteilung (SA), from 1922 until they were banned in the wake of the failed Beer Hall Putsch in November 1923.

[4] He served as an SA-Truppführer, a senior non-commissioned officer, in SA-Standarte 39 in Düsseldorf from 1925 until 1 October 1930 when he joined the Schutzstaffel (SS number 3,809).

[3] Following the Nazi seizure of power, Sporrenberg was named the Führer of SS-Abschnitt (district) XX in Kiel on 20 July 1933, where he served until 20 September 1936.

On 1 March 1936, Sporrenberg entered military service with the German Army as a Leutnant of reserves with Infantry Regiment 26 in Flensburg.

Leaving Kiel on 20 September 1936, he was made the commander of SD-Oberabschnitt (main district) Nordöst in East Prussia, with headquarters in Königsberg.

He also sat on the Defense Committee for Wehrkreis I and was the representative of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood for that military district.

In March 1943, he was assigned to the staff of SS-Obergruppenführer Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski to combat partisans in the Bandenbekämpfung operations.

Sporrenberg was made a Generalleutnant of police on 7 July 1943 and succeeded Odilo Globočnik as SSPF of Lublin in the General Government of occupied Poland from 16 August 1943 to 25 November 1944.

[7] In this capacity, Sporrenberg oversaw and implemented the mass shooting of Jewish forced laborers during Operation Harvest Festival on 3-4 November 1943 that resulted in the murder of an estimated 40,000 to 43,000 individuals.