On October 18, 1914, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, von Hippel volunteered for service in the Schutztruppe for German East Africa, where he served under General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck in the East African theatre, where Lettow-Vorbeck had conducted a guerrilla campaign against Allied colonial troops.
In 1922, von Hippel earned a doctorate in state economics (Dr.