Born in Würzburg, Grieb completed a commercial apprenticeship from 1947 to 1950 and learned foreign languages at language institutes and as a guest student at the University of Würzburg.
After the sale of his company in 1992, he worked as an art collector (Nuremberg city views) and gallery owner.
("Fränkische Bilder-Galerie Grieb & Popp OHG") and worked on the four-volume Nürnberger Künstlerlexikon with over 20,000 entries, which quickly became a standard work on the history of the city of Nuremberg after its publication in 2007.
The work is also criticized for its omissions among artists with a National Socialist past.
In 2009 he founded a support association for the establishment of a cultural history museum in Nuremberg.