Marianne Birthler (born 22 January 1948 in Friedrichshain, Berlin) is a German human rights advocate and politician of the Alliance '90/The Greens.

[3] In 1988 she joined the Initiative for Peace and Human Rights, which formed part of the resistance to the Soviet-imposed communist regime in the 1980s.

She resigned from the parliament in the summer of 1992 and, in protest over Stolpe's Stasi contacts, from the cabinet in October the same year.

In September 2000, Birthler was appointed by the Parliament of Germany as Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records, succeeding Joachim Gauck.

Before the election, she strongly criticised the SPD candidate Gesine Schwan for claiming that the GDR was "not an unjust state".