On 31 March 1925 Ziegler became a member of the Nazi Party, with his membership number being the comparatively low 1317.[4] From 1925 to 1931 he worked under Wilhelm Frick in Thuringia, serving as deputy gauleiter from 1930 to 1931.[5] In 1928 he was appointed head of the Militant League for German Culture.[5] It was also Ziegler who in 1926 came up with the name Hitler-Jugend (Hitler Youth) for the Nazi youth movement.[5] Ziegler was a close friend of the Schirach family and in 1925 he introduced Baldur von Schirach, who would go on to lead the Hitler Youth, to Adolf Hitler.[6]