Kipp began his career in 1948 selling clothes and opened his first Massa department store in 1965.The Massa stores were introduced on the German stock market in 1986. In 1987 Kipp sold his remaining shares but he kept the real estate of the stores, which he rented to the retailer Metro AG.
His son, former Florida resident Ernst-Ludwig Kipp, died in 2003, leaving behind his seven children. His daughter Ursula married Dr Wilfried Bechtolsheimer and together they have three sons, Felix (a singer with the rock group Hey Negrita), Goetz, and Till, and a daughter, Laura, an Olympic dressage rider.
