Hensel was born in Gehsen (today Jeże, Poland) and visited school in Lyck.

Since 1891 he was engaged in several organisations of agricultural cooperatives and became a member of the supervisory board of the "Landwirtschaftliche Zentraldarlehenskasse für Deutschland" in Berlin in 1920–24.

Hensel soon started to support the German side and, as Superintendent of the old-Prussian Johannisburg deanery, travelled to Versailles already in March 1919 to hand over a collection of 144.447 signatures to the Allied Powers to protest against the planned cession.

[2] Hensel appealed to the foundation of the pro-German Masurenbund and the Arbeitsausschuß Allenstein gegen die Polengefahr, which both joined the Masuren- und Ermländerbund in July 1919 under the presidency of Max Worgitzki.

Hensel was active in the Ostdeutscher Heimatdienst and the head of the Committee of Lutheran parishes in Masuria.