Hitler commissioned Ziegler to paint a memoriam portrait of his niece, Geli Raubal, who had committed suicide.

Exiled museum director Alois Schardt [de] noted in the late thirties that Ziegler was in former times a modern painter and a zealous admirer of the works of Franz Marc.…His transmutation proceeded by slow degrees.…before he took this position, he was one of the most extreme modern painters, but one of inferior rank.

However, the artistic ‘naturalism’ of the racially pure figures left nothing to the imagination, earning him the disparaging nickname of ‘Meister des Deutschen Schamhaares' ("Master of German Pubic Hair").

Ziegler's replacement of Hönig as president was a clear signal of the Reich's growing distaste for nonconformity in the arts.

[3] Ziegler headed a five-man commission that toured state collections in numerous cities, hastily seizing works they deemed degenerate.

The paintings of such "degenerate" artists, including the works of Max Beckmann and Emil Nolde, were confiscated on Ziegler's orders as head of the sluice commission.

On July 19, 1937, he opened the exhibition and condemned those museum directors from whose collections the works came and their tolerance of the decadent art.

However, his name must not be confused with that of Hans Severus Ziegler, who organized in May 1938 the Entartete Musik or Degenerate music exhibition in Düsseldorf.

], Ziegler was temporarily sent to a prison camp after he publicly expressed doubts about the viability of Hitler's campaign.

Unable to revive his career, Ziegler lived quietly in the village of Varnhalt near Baden-Baden for the last years of his life.