Hans Ibner was born in Breslau, Germany on 21 June 1900. From 1919 to 1924 he studied civil engineering at the TH Aachen before working in aircraft construction. In 1927 he joined the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt (DVL) in Berlin-Adlershof as a research assistant. He remained at DVL until 1937, during hich time he became department head for strength and head of the Institute of Sea Aviation and dealt with the statics of aircraft and airships. In 1929 he received his doctorate aon three-dimensional trusses for airplanes and 1937/38 he developed the shear field theory with Hermann Köller, which anticipated essential ideas of the later finite element method in structural engineering.

From 1946 to 1953, Ebner was an independent engineer, focusing in particular on measuring technology on buildings and developing and building measuring devices. Subsequently, from 1955 until his retirement in 1968, he was a professor of lightweight construction at RWTH Aachen University and founder of the Institute for Lightweight Construction at RWTH Aachen University.

Ebner was a corresponding member of the German Academy of Aviation Research and an associate fellow of the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences in New York. He received the award from the Lilienthal Society for Aviation Research for the investigation of shell strength. Ebner died in Aachen, Germany on 24 April 1977.