Liebehenschel was born in Posen, a city that was a part of the German Empire. He studied economics and politics when he was in school. Because he was too young to be a soldier in World War I, he joined the German volunteer military in 1919. He was a sergeant major in the German army afterwards. In 1932, he joined the Nazi Party, and in 1934 he joined the SS. In the SS, he was a member of the concentration camp branch, which controlled and regulated the death camps. Liebehenschel was an assistant at the Lichtenburg concentration camp, and two years later became an inspector of camps in Berlin. In 1942, he was put in command of the central office for concentration camps.