[2] In 1848 he was a member of the Prussian National Assembly that emerged as part of the democratic revolutionary movement of the time, and in 1849 he was sentenced to a prison term because of his support for a motion of refusal to pay a supplementary tax to fund military expansion.

Ziegler was born in Warchau, at that time a hamlet separated by a series of marshes and lakes from Brandenburg an der Havel nearby.

He implemented national strategy by setting up a "Forced Labour Institution" (a so-called "poor house"), and through strict supervision of the work-shy he succeeded in clearing the streets of beggars and whores.

His reforms of municipal taxation included the first imposition in German of a progressive income tax[1] and earned him denunciations and enduring enmity from members of the town council.

[6] In 1844 Franz Ziegler became the first Lord Mayor in Prussia to publish municipal budgets, giving rise to the possibility of a certain level of public verification.

The first open meeting of the town council took place at Ziegler's instigation on 11 February 1848, enabling the councillors to interact with members of the public.

[2] The terms of his sentence also included exclusion from his home region, the voting district of Brandenburg for a further year following his release,[3] and accordingly he now moved to Berlin where through hard work he was able to restore his fortunes.