 The son of a postman, he joined the German Imperial Army and spent 12 years in the service, although he was to spend most of the First World War in a British prisoner of war camp.Right-wing by inclination, Deubel had been involved with the Freikorps and other rightist and anti-Semitic groups from an early age.He became involved with the Nazis in the early 1920s at the same time as Egon Zill and was amongst the first 200 members of the SS.