[2][3] Born in Staudach-Egerndach, Bavaria, Brandl was posted to Ravensbrück concentration camp in March 1940 to begin her training under SS-Oberaufseherin Johanna Langefeld.

Sent to Auschwitz I during March 1942, Brandl was employed in the laundry and soon rose through the ranks and became an Erstaufseherin (First Guard) directly under Margot Dreschel and Maria Mandl.

When they counted us, one was found missing, so Mandl, manageress of the women's camp and her assistant, Brandl, drove us out into the street at one in the morning and made us stand there in the frost until noon the next day".

[5] In November 1944, with the approach of the Soviet Army, she was assigned to the Mühldorf concentration camp complex, subcamp of Dachau along with Mandl and was demoted to Aufseherin.

In November 1947, she was tried by the Polish authorities along with Mandl, Luise Danz, Hildegard Lächert, and Alice Orlowski at the Auschwitz Trial in Kraków.