Reinhard Dietrich was born in Breslau less than a year before the increasingly challenged "Weimar" regime was replaced by the Nazi government. By the time he was 13 frontiers had moved and Breslau was rapidly becoming Wrocław, ethnically and politically part of Poland. Between 1946 and 1950 Dietrich lived in Wittenberg within the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, where he undertook an apprenticeship in the art of wood carving. This was followed by a period of study at the Wood carving Academy in Empfertshausen (1950–1952), and two or three years of further study at the College of Applied Arts at Leipzig (1952–1954). At Leipzig he was taught by and Alfred Thiele. After this he moved on to the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts where he was taught by and Walter Arnold.