The influence of zinc oxide on the kinetics and mechanism of the liquid-phase hydrogenation of maleic anhydride (MA) and intermediates was investigated on copper-based catalysts. No influence of zinc oxide on the hydrogenation of maleic anhydride was observed in previous experiments. The discontinuous hydrogenation of succinic anhydride (SA) resulted in the formation of gamma-butyrolactone (gamma-BL) and 1,4-butanediol (1,4-BD) on a copper/zinc catalyst. On a zinc-free copper catalyst only gamma-butyrolactone was formed while the hydrogenation of gamma-butyrolactone to 1,4-butanediol was inhibited. It was observed that succinic anhydride which is adsorbed on the copper surface of the catalyst prevents the adsorption of gamma-butyrolactone. On copper/zinc catalysts the reversible adsorption of succinic anhydride on the inactive zinc oxide crystallites, which led to a reversible decrease of the carbon balance, is responsible for a decrease of the succinic anhydride coverage of the copper sites. It appears that the decrease of the succinic anhydride coverage of the copper surface is proceeding by surface diffusion of succinic anhydride to the adjacent zinc oxide crystallites. On this basis two different reaction pathways via succinic anhydride adsorbed on the copper surface and via succinic anhydride adsorbed on the zinc oxide crystallites were proposed for the hydrogenation of maleic anhydride and intermediates. Kinetic modeling of the reaction pathway taking into account both reaction pathways led to good agreement of calculated and experimental results.