Zerbe was born on September 16, 1903, in Berlin; however, much of his early life was lived in Paris, where his family lived from 1904 to 1914, (His father was an executive in an electrical supply company.) With the outbreak of WWI, the family returned to Germany, living in Frankfurt until 1920. Zerbe originally studied to become a chemist, but from 1921 to 1923, he studied painting in Munich. From 1924 until 1926 Zerbe worked and traveled in Italy on a fellowship from the City of Munich. In 1932 his oil painting titled, ‘’Herbstgarten’’ (autumnal garden), of 1929, was acquired by the National-Galerie, Berlin; in 1937, the painting was destroyed by the Nazis as "degenerate art" (Entartete Kunst), and Zerbe emigrated to the United States. From 1937 until 1955, Zerbe was the head of the Department of Painting of the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Art. In 1939 Zerbe became a U.S. citizen and the same year for the first time he used encaustic. He joined the faculty in the Department of Art and Art History at Florida State University in 1955, where he taught until his death. Zerbe was often grouped with Boston Expressionist artists, such as Jack Levine and Hyman Bloom. Through his teaching he influenced a generation of painters, such as David Aronson, Barbara Swan, Reed Kay, Lois Tarlow, and others. Zerbe's work is held today in many museums and private collections in the United States and Europe.