Herbert Ziegenhahn was born on 27 October 1921, as the son of a small farming family in Dankerode.

Simultaneously, the SED delegated him to a distance-learning program at the "Karl Marx" Party Academy from 1954 to 1960, which he completed with a degree in social sciences.

[1] Ziegenhahn's tenure was viewed negatively, him being seen as a model student of the SED headquarters and him becoming increasingly intolerant of criticism from subordinates.

[1] During the Wende, on 2 November 1989, the Bezirk Gera SED removed him from the position of First Secretary and installed reformer Erich Postler as his successor.

At its last session on 3 December 1989, the Central Committee expelled Ziegenhahn from the Central Committee and from the SED shortly before its collective resignation "due to the severity of their violations against the SED statute and in consideration of numerous demands and requests from district delegate conferences.