Marion Walsmann was born in 1963, and grew up in Erfurt, Thuringia. From 1981 to 1985, she studied law at the University of Leipzig and worked as a lawyer at VEB Robotron Sales. In 1986, she moved to the Erfurt city building office as a legal counsel. In 1990, she became Head of the Legal Department of the city of Erfurt, but in the same year, after the re-establishment of the state of Thuringia, she took over the leadership of the Thuringian Ministry of Justice. Later on, she held various functions within the ministry, including becoming the Head of the Constitutional Law Unit. Most recently, she was the Deputy Head of Department and Head of Human Resources in the Prison Department. Between 2004 and 2018, she was a Member of the Landtag of Thuringia. In 2008, Walsmann was appointed State Minister of Justice. She was State Minister of Finance in 2009. Between 2010 and 2013, she acted as Head of the State Chancellery and State Minister for European Affairs. From 2015 until 2018, Walsmann was the State Parliament's delegate to the European Committee of the Regions. MEP since 2019.