Hans Ohlms was born in Hanover in 1908, the son of a teacher and the eldest of seven siblings. Hans Völker, Ohlms' art teacher at high school, was the first to recognize his talent. Although his father approved of an artistic education, he also insisted on teacher training. While still a student, Ohlms attended evening classes with Fritz Burger-Mühlfeld at the Hanover School of Arts and Crafts. This was followed by an apprenticeship as a painter and decorator (1925-1927). In 1928 he completed further artistic training at the Hanover School of Arts and Crafts with Georg Kindermann and the painter Carl Wiederhold. He received further training from Rudolf Rochga at the Staatliche Kunstgewerbeschule Stuttgart in 1928-1929.

After his artistic training, he found his first work as a church painter in Bamberg with Paul Faltin. In 1930/31 Ohlms moved to Osnabrück. There he worked as a painter and graphic artist and also had his first exhibition in 1931. In order to meet his father's wishes, he completed a teacher training course in Cologne from 1932. This training led to him working as a teacher in Nordhorn from 1937. He was an art teacher at the vocational school center and taught at the Gymnasium for a time. In 1978 he was retired. In addition to his work as a teacher, however, he never neglected his artistic work.

His experiences in the Second World War were particularly formative. From 1939, Hans Ohlms was stationed as a Wehrmacht soldier in the Aegean and was deployed as a war correspondent in Romania, Crete and Greece. He had to spend the time until 1947 as a prisoner of war. To enable reintegration into the civil service, it was necessary for Ohlms to undergo a denazification procedure after his release. From 1948 Ohlms was a member of the Bund Bildender Künstler Osnabrück and then resumed his exhibition activities.
He lived continuously in Nordhorn, was married to Adelheid Schumpe since 1935 and had two children with her. Hans Ohlms died on February 28, 1988 in Nordhorn.