Dietrich worked for newspapers in Essen and Munich. In 1929 he became a member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) as a Personal Press Referent. Here he was able to introduce Hitler to numerous important officials within different sects of the mining industry to help secure funding for the Nazi Party. On 1 August 1931 he was appointed Press Chief of the NSDAP, and the following year joined the SS. On 2 June 1933 Hitler appointed Dietrich a Reichsleiter, the second highest political rank in the Nazi Party.Dietrich Orlow: The History of the Nazi Party: 1933-1945 (University of Pittsburgh Press), 1973, Pages 74. . On 1 November, he was named Vice-President of the Reich Press Chamber (Reichspressekammer) under Max Amann. On February 28, 1934, Hitler raised Dietrich to the position of Reich Press Chief of the Nazi Party. In March 1936 he was elected as a Nazi member of the Reichstag. On 26 November 1937, Dietrich became the Reich Press Chief of the Government and a State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. On April 20, 1941 he had risen to the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer.Hardy (1967), pp. 50-51.
