Margarete Poehlmann was born on 29 June 1856 in Tilsit, which at the time was part of the Prussian province of East Prussia.

During several stays in Berlin, she visited lectures at Friedrich Wilhelm University, including some held by Ernst Troeltsch.

From 1906 until 1919, she served as a member of the board of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Lehrerinnenverein (General German Association of Female Teachers), which included consulting the Prussian State Government during a reform of girls' schools.

[6] At the end of World War I, Poehlmann became a member of the newly-founded German People's Party (Deutsche Volkspartei, or DVP).

Although the topic of the debate was the arrest of two members of the diet in Poland, Poehlmann took the opportunity to point out the historic moment: [...] that for the first time, a woman speaks in this house as a representative of the Prussian people.

[10] In a speech on 27 November 1920, she also demanded that the descriptions of titles in public administrations would no longer be used in just the male form (e.g. Rätin as opposed to Rat).

[11] In parliament, Poehlmann was a member of the committees on culture, Bevölkerungspolitik and Ostmarkfragen (concerning the easternmost parts of Prussia, mainly the Province of Posen).

In an obituary, the women's rights activist Else Frobenius honoured Poehlmann as "a woman, who has brought the modern parliamentarian respect and recognition".