Elisabeth Krippel, daughter of an Imperial Royal officer, spent her earliest childhood in Sarajevo. Later she lived in Vienna, where she studied with Michael Powolny at the Kunstgewerbeschule, today's University of Applied Arts, from 1918 to 1923 and under the direction of Robert Obsieger at the Wienerberger Werkstättenschule für Keramik, the centre for the development, research and further education of ceramic art, which opened in December 1920. In 1923, she worked with her sister Adelgunde, who was also a ceramist, in the Scheibbs clay factory founded by Ludwig Weinbrenner. Many artists of the Wiener Werkstätte also worked in this ceramics factory. In 1924, the sisters moved back to Vienna, where Elisabeth Krippel continued to work as a ceramist for a while and then attended the restoration school with Serafin Maurer at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1931/32. Until 1939, she worked as a freelance artist and restorer, among others at the Institute for Conservation and Technology headed by Robert Eigenberger as well as for the Federal Monuments Authority and for the restorer of the Picture Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM) Sebastian Isepp. From June 1939, Krippel worked as a freelance painting restorer at the KHM, and in January 1942 she was given a position as a steady employee there. During the Second World War, she was involved as a restorer in the salvage of art and cultural objects from the KHM's holdings, protecting the objects from war damage, especially at the Neue Burg salvage site. After 1945, Krippel continued to work at the KHM, retiring in 1966.