After finishing his final exams at the German secondary school Erich Vagts became a soldier during the First World War.
Vagts did not finish his studies but became director of a consortium of farmers in Güstrow which was typical for Germany in the time after the First World War.
In 1931 Erich Vagts became chairman of the DNVP and two years later he was elected to the position of a senator for the health resort in the city state of Bremen.
After a political affair involving communist and social democratic senators he was removed from office and arrested for 6 months.
In 1933 Vagts became President of the philharmonic society and was put in charge of the musical events in the municipal city of Bremen.