Lipp's tenure in government was marked by his eccentric behavior, particularly his diplomatic telegram to Vladimir Lenin and Pope Benedict XV, where he mentioned the disappearance of the ministry's "key to the toilet."
[8] While working at the Heilbronn newspaper, Lipp faced prosecution for the crime of lèse-majesté and was subsequently forced into exile, first in Switzerland and later in Italy.
[11] At the age of 51, Lipp experienced his first episode of mental illness, characterized by agitation and delusions of persecution, which led to his hospitalization.
[12] Several contemporary sources at the time of the Bavarian Socialist Republic with an anti-Communist stance, based on unreliable police information, claim that Lipp was an intelligence agent for Germany at the beginning of World War I.
Upon his return to Germany, he publicly boasted about having access to military maps while pretending to be friends with a geography professor from Pavia.
Lipp supposedly participated in negotiations with Radek, while also infiltrating German revolutionary groups and providing information to the authorities about their activities.
[19] Scholar Richard Sheppard, writing in 1992, considered these rumors unreliable as he found no mention of Lipp in the literature dedicated to the conference.
[20] Upon his return to Germany in 1917, Lipp's defeatist remarks caught attention, leading to his internment under 'protective detention' (Schutzhaft) until the end of the war.
[28] The first dispatch, addressed to the apostolic nuncio in Bavaria, Eugenio Pacelli, reads as follows:[29] "I consider it my sacred duty to ensure the safety of your very eminent person and of the entire nunciature in Munich.
"The second is addressed to the Bavarian Ambassador in Berlin and states:[30] "The opus primum non ultimum ne of Mr. Preuss on the constitution of Germany will never be a law requiring Bavaria.
"In addition, the American journalist Ben Hecht, whose testimony is not known for its reliability,[33] recounts having seen Lipp persistently trying to get in touch with Clemenceau in order to offer him a separate peace with Bavaria.
[34] According to historian Helmut Neubauer, Lipp, during his tenure as Delegate of Foreign Affairs, was responsible for the release of a group of Russian prisoners of war.
[35] A few days after his appointment, and under the insistent pressure of Ernst Toller or Erich Mühsam (each claiming credit in their respective memoirs[36][37]), Franz Lipp was asked to resign and subsequently left the government.
Additionally, the play depicts Lipp's role in a significant event involving Eugen Leviné's disclosure of Toller's telegram to the Pope.