He was the second son of Otto II, Margrave of Meissen and Hedwig of Brandenburg. Dietrich fell out with his brother, Albrecht the Proud as his mother persuaded his father to change the succession so that Dietrich was given the Margraviate of Meißen and Albrecht (although the older son) the Margraviate of Weißenfels. Albrecht took his father prisoner to try to make him return the succession to the way it had been.
After Otto obtained his release by order of the emperor Frederick I, he had only just renewed the war when he died in 1190. In 1195, however, he left on a pilgrimage to Palestine. After Albrecht"s death in 1195, leaving no children, Meissen, with its rich mines, was seized by the emperor Henry VI as a vacant fief of the empire.
Dietrich finally came into possession of his inheritance two years later on Henry"s death.
After that time, Dietrich was on Phillip"s side and remained true to the Staufer even after Phillip was murdered in 1208. Dietrich became caught up in dangerous disagreements with the city of Leipzig and the Meißen nobility.
After a fruitless siege of Leipzig, in 1217 he agreed to a settlement but then took over the city by trickery, had the city walls taken down and built three castles of his own within the city, full of his own mentor Margrave Dietrich died on 18 February 1221, possibly poisoned by his doctor, instigated into doing so by the people of Leipzig and the dissatisfied nobility.
He left behind a widow, Jutta of Thuringia, daughter of Hermann I, Landgrave of Thuringia.
