As a child he contributed to the family's income as an errand boy delivering newspapers and bread rolls.

He spent 1906 in solitary confinement after he called for a demonstration against the Prussian three-class franchise, which gave more weight to the votes of those who paid more in taxes.

Between two prison sentences of several months in length, Löbe became engaged to Clara Schaller (1879–1964), a native of Liegnitz, and married her in 1901.

During the German Revolution of 1918–1919 Löbe declined to join the Council of the People's Deputies, the interim body under Friedrich Ebert (SPD) that led the country during the turbulent post-war months, because he felt himself "not yet sufficiently prepared for such a task".

After Ebert died in 1925, Löbe declined his party's offer to run as the SPD candidate in the presidential election against the conservative Paul von Hindenburg who won in the second round.

Löbe met the challenge with a mixture of patience and severity in enforcing order against individual deputies.

He suggested negotiations on disputed border issues in return for which the German Reich could offer trade agreements.

[8] In Lodz, however, where Löbe had been invited to an anniversary celebration of the local Social Democrats, Polish nationalists demonstrated against his visit.

In his radio address of 12 June 1930, Löbe advocated a time-delayed "occasional transmission of particularly important sessions" in which all party speakers would appear for roughly the same length of time, but the majority of the Reichstag's Council of Elders, a body that dealt with points of order, opposed it.

[11] He was involved with politicians such as French Prime Minister Aristide Briand, the Czech leader Edvard Beneš, the Austrian Ignaz Seipel and the future chancellor of West Germany Konrad Adenauer in the Paneuropean Union, founded in 1922.

He was a member of the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold (Reich banner black-red-gold), a multi-party organization formed in 1924 to defend parliamentary democracy in the Weimar Republic.

On 26 April 1933, after Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, Löbe was elected to the party executive of the SPD.

In the Beck/Goerdeler cabinet that was to have been formed if the assassination and coup were successful, Löbe was slated to be the Reichstag president, but the interrogating Gestapo officials were unaware of this.

[12] When he was freed, Löbe was in county Glatz, Lower Silesia (today Kłodzko in Poland), from which he along with all other German inhabitants were expelled according to the resolutions of the Potsdam Agreement.

He died in West Germany's capital, Bonn, on 3 August 1967 and was given an honorary grave by the city of Berlin.

He was also an honorary member of the Free University of Berlin and a recipient of the Badge of Honor of the Federation of Expellees.

In their speeches, Bundestag President Eugen Gerstenmaier, Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger, Governing Mayor of Berlin Heinrich Albertz and SPD Chairman Willy Brandt praised Löbe's work.

[16] One of the new parliamentary buildings (2002) which serves Bundestag members in Berlin is named the Paul Löbe House.