[2][3] While in Soviet captivity, he attended an anti-fascist school and, after returning to Germany in 1948,[3] joined the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED).

He began a party career in the State of Brandenburg, serving as instructor, cadre department head and finally Second Secretary of the Seelow district SED.

[2][3] In February 1979, Tiedke was elected to the position of the First Secretary of the Bezirk Magdeburg SED, succeeding longtime incumbent Alois Pisnik.

[2] In June 1983, he returned to the "Karl Marx" Party Academy, succeeding retiring hardliner Hanna Wolf as principal.

[8] Mikhail Gorbachev's election as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and his reform program perestroika and glasnost challenged the SED and the PHS.

In his reports to chief party ideologue Kurt Hager, Tiedke claimed that visiting Soviet functionaries were praising the SED and criticizing Gorbachev's reform program.

In May 1989 Hanna Wolf and Wolfgang Schneider published a lengthy article in the party newspaper Neues Deutschland, defending Stalin and attacking glasnost.