Hans Kummerlöwe studied natural sciences in Leipzig and obtained a doctorate in ornithology in 1930. He joined the NSDAP in 1925 while still a student. At the end of 1935 he became director of the Staatliche Museen für Tierkunde und Völkerkunde in Dresden. After the annexation of Austria in March 1938, he was able to extend his activities to Vienna. At the request of the Reichsministerium für Wissenschaft, Erziehung und Volksbildung (REM) (Reich Ministry of Science, Education and Culture), he became senior director of the Naturhistorisches Museum and Museum für Völkerkunde in Vienna. When the plans for the takeover of the Technisches Museum Wien by Fritz Todt and the Nationalsozialistischer Bund Deutscher Technik (National Socialist German Technical Association) became definite in February 1939, Fritz Plattner, Staatskommissar im Ministerium für innere und kulturelle Angelegenheiten (State Commissar in the Ministry of Internal and Cultural Affairs), offered Kummerlöwe the directorship of the Technisches Museum, on condition that the former director Viktor Schützenhofer continued to manage the museum. An REM decree of 1 June 1939 made Kummerlöwe senior director of all "scientific state museums in Vienna". He had an office in the Naturhistorisches Museum but was rarely in Vienna in the years up to 1945. During this time he undertook frequent research trips and also served in the military.

He did not return to Vienna in 1945 and changed his name at the end of the Second World War to Kumerloeve. He settled in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, and obtained a civil service pension. It is not known whether he was ever official denazified. As an ornithologist he undertook several research trips on behalf of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Society) and published over 400 articles, most notably on ornithology in Turkey.