Between his militant forays, he studied at the Goethe University Frankfurt and in 1922 obtained a doctorate in political science. The following year, he joined the Nazi Party and its SA militia, and later also the SS. From 1928–1931 he was an executive director of a textile factory owned by a Jewish family in Erfurt where he renounced active service in the SA but financially donated to the SA, possibly obtaining the money by embezzling from his company. Dirlewanger held various jobs, which included working at a bank and a knit-wear factory. In 1933 after the Nazi seizure of power, Dirlewanger was rewarded to become director of the Heilbronn employment agency, a strategic post for local-level Nazi leaders.