Jacob Sporrenberg enlisted in a Freicorps in 1919 and took part in the Kapp Putsch in 1920. In 1922, he and his brother became members of the NSDAP. In 1923, Jacob Sporrenberg was sentenced to two years in prison by the French occupation authorities for his illegal underground activities for the NSDAP during the Ruhr War, but was released on bail. He then built up the Düsseldorf NSDAP. He joined the SA in 1925 and switched to the SS in 1930. He received a mandate in the Reichstag elections in March 1933.

In September 1939, Jacob Sporrenberg was appointed Higher SS and Police Leader for the Rhine, based in Wiesbaden at Walkmühlstraße 83. Together with his wife, son, daughter, mother and brother Paul, he moved into the former home of Richard Walter Darré, which also served as the Race and Settlement Head Office.

When the "Westwall labor camp" in Hinzert was converted into a special SS and concentration camp, Paul Sporrenberg was hired at the lowest SS rank. With fraternal protection, Paul Sporrenberg rose to the rank of commandant at Hinzert concentration camp. As post-war trials proved, he was notorious for his particularly sadistic treatment of prisoners. Jacob Sporrenberg received orders to fight partisans in Minsk in 1941 and was appointed SS and police leader in the Lublin district in August 1943.

In an "Operation Harvest Festival" (October 1943), Paul Sporrenberg was tasked with carrying out the "Final Solution". Within a few days, almost 43,000 Jews were shot and the piles of corpses burned. Jacob Sporrenberg monitored the events from a small airplane. When the Red Army approached Lublin, he fled by plane to Norway, where he was arrested in May 1945 and extradited to Poland. He was executed there on December 6, 1952.

Paul Sporrenberg lived undisturbed with his wife in Mönchengladbach until 1959. He died in custody in Koblenz in 1961.