Rippert was born in Offenbach am Main, Germany, and began his career as a stage actor, working in theatres in Baden-Baden, Forst (Lausitz), Bamberg and in Berlin.

In 1912 he appeared (complete with stick-on beard) as the millionaire Isidor Straus in In Nacht und Eis, one of the first films about the sinking of the Titanic.

[1] The film was made by Continental-Kunstfilm of Berlin, where Rippert continued to work as a director, making some ten motion pictures between 1912 and 1914.

[2] Homunculus, produced by Deutsche Bioskop in 1916, is a six-part serial science fiction film involving mad scientists, superhuman androids and sinister technology.

The script was written by Robert Reinert, and the film foreshadows various elements of Fritz Lang's 1927 Metropolis, as well as serving as a model for later adaptations of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein rather than the original 1910 version.