VfB Stuttgart was immersed in a goalkeeping crisis after the defection of legendary Eike Immel to England's Manchester City in the 1995 summer.

Youth graduate Ziegler – then 19 – won the battle for first choice over longtime backup Eberhard Trautner and played all the season's matches save five, but the club finished tenth with the second-worst defensive record in the Bundesliga, only winning to Eintracht Frankfurt.

In the following three years Ziegler only appeared in 12 more games combined, eventually leaving club and country in 2000 after a brief spell at Arminia Bielefeld: he started in Turkey with Bursaspor, then left in January 2001 to Austria, where he was the starter for FC Tirol Innsbruck in back-to-back national championship conquests.

Ziegler signed with Borussia Dortmund for the 2007–08 campaign, and split first-choice duties with Roman Weidenfeller in that first year.

On 29 January 2008, he saved a penalty kick from SV Werder Bremen's Diego – who had already beat him from the same spot – in the German Cup 2–1 home win; in the subsequent seasons, however, he was second choice.