In 1867 he went to Vienna to look for work and subsequently joined the Workers' Education Association, the cradle of the social democratic movement in Austria.

After a series of police raids and a wave of arrests crippled the Social Democratic leadership in Bohemia in 1881–1882, Hybeš's group in Vienna temporarily became the center of party activity.

The party newspaper Dělnické listy was moved here from Prague and the leadership of the Czech Social Democrats was also active there.

After his expulsion, he continued to work as a textile worker and was also the publisher of the Prostějov newspaper Hlas lidu for four years.

From January 1919 until the end of his term of office in 1920, he sat for it in the Revolutionary National Assembly of the newly formed Czechoslovakia.