[1][2] After his father's death and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire, he ran away from home and worked in various jobs including as a coal miner and a circus clown,[3] before studying art at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.

In October 1935, fourteen of these pieces were exhibited at the Tooth Gallery in London under the title "Kaleidoscope",[9][10] and according to the New York Times "created a sensation in the art world".

[11] Von Ripper recreated the pictures as etchings on copper plates, which were published in Paris in a limited edition in 1938 under the title Ecrasez l'infame (To Crush Tyranny), a reference to Voltaire.

[7][12] After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, in which General Francisco Franco's coup was supported by troops from Nazi Germany, von Ripper joined the Republican Army, with the specific aim of fighting the Germans.

[4] In 1937, he was serving as an aerial gunner in the Spanish Republican Air Force when his plane was shot down and his left leg riddled with metal from a shell.

[10][1][4] In January 1939, Time used von Ripper's picture captioned 'From the unholy organist, a hymn of hate', from Ecrasez l'infame, on the front cover of the issue which named Adolf Hitler as 1938's Man of the Year.

[15][16] TIME's cover, showing Organist Adolf Hitler playing his hymn of hate in a desecrated cathedral while victims dangle on a St. Catherine's wheel and the Nazi hierarchy looks on, was drawn by Baron Rudolph Charles von Ripper, a Catholic who found Germany intolerable.The issue also contained a profile of von Ripper and his art, under the heading 'Art: Enemy of the State'.

[25] Eventually, on September 5, 1942, he was admitted to the United States Army[2] for 'limited service only' due to his wounds,[4] and initially served as a hospital laboratory technician.

[11] He worked alongside Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ernie Pyle, who in his 1944 book Brave Men wrote: One of the most fabulous characters in that war theater was Lieutenant Rudolf Charles von Ripper.

[1] For actions in these sorties he was awarded a Silver Star and oak leaf cluster, and on December 12, 1943, was promoted to first lieutenant,[4] which fellow artist Sergeant Mitchell Siporin described as 'a battlefield appointment about which much should be said'.

And in that he is very lucky: He can divert his effort from destruction, from killing, which is the soldier’s job, to creative work, to build, make new things.In February 1944 he returned to the front lines and was involved in the Battle of Monte Cassino.

[4] His exploits drew the attention of Office of Strategic Services (OSS) director William J. Donovan, and he was recruited for its Secret Intelligence Branch.

[4] He returned to Europe in 1946 and taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna,[31] where he was involved with the Art-Club artists' association, often raising funds for their activities.

[32] In 1947, a portfolio of thirty of von Ripper's etchings was published in New York in 200 numbered editions, under the title "With the 34th Infantry Division in Italy" with a foreword from Major General Charles W.

[33][34] The same year, his wartime painting Smoke Screen at Anzio Beachhead was lent by the Department of Defence to hang in the United States Capitol.

[35] In 1950, Rudolph and Evelyn moved to a villa called Ca'n Cueg (House of the Frogs) near Pollença on Mallorca, despite the island still being under the Francoist regime that von Ripper had fought against in the 1930s.