After a childhood in Mecklenburg, Griephan left the GDR in the early 1950s and went first to West Berlin, later to the federal capital Bonn.
[9] Von 1980 bis 1985 veröffentlichte das Unternehmermagazin Impulse, Cologne, Griephans Kolumne "Geschäfte mit dem Staat".
[11] In 1979, the member of the Bundestag Heinz Pensky [de] (SPD) filed a criminal complaint for insult against Griephan.
[15] On Griephan's initiative, the Förderverein Reuter-Museen e. V. was founded in 1991 to support the four Reuter museums in Stavenhagen, Eisenach, Neubrandenburg and Dömitz.
[17] In the second half of the 1980s, triggered by his leadership activities in the Fritz Reuter Society,[18] Griephan was subjected to spying by the Ministry for State Security of the GDR.
[19] The reason for this was the joint effort of the head of the Federal Agency for All-German Tasks (BfgA) Detlef Kühn and Griephan to gain influence on the handling of the Fritz Reuter legacy in the GDR, according to the GDR authorities "in the all-German sense".