Born: August 24, 1883, Dearborn County, Indiana.
Died: July 13, 1965, Golden Valley, Minnesota.
Buried: Crystal Lake Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Paul was the son of minister Carl Heinrich Ernst Kretzmann and Elizabeth Anna Maria Polack, and husband of Louise Theresia Schroeder.
In 1956, Kretzmann, a professor in the seminary of the Orthodox Lutheran Conference (OLC), suspended church fellowship with some congregations after they charged him with teaching error in class.
Those congregations formed the Concordia Lutheran Conference, while most of the others, along with Kretzmann, later joined with other conservatives leaving the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) to organize as the Lutheran Churches of the Reformation (LCR) .