Franz Hippler came to Dortmund in 1919 and, after participating in the First World War, worked from 1919 as a machine operative. From 1929, he was unemployed. Franz Hippler moved on 21 June 1924 from Wambeler Str. 13 to Wambeler Str. 11. Here he lived with his wife Sophie, née Simon, and his son Arno, born in January 1924.
He joined the KPD, the German Communist Party, in 1921, but was later excluded.

After a two months’ spell in “preventive detention”, he was arrested once more on 15 January 1935 and sentenced on 12 October 1935 to a prison sentence of three years and nine months for “preparation of acts of treason”.

On completing the sentence, he was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp, from where he was released on a probationary basis in April 1943. He then worked for the firm of Heinrich Oestring, before being apprehended on 19 February 1945 by the Gestapo in Dortmund and murdered by them at the beginning of April in Romberg Park.