Marlene Mortler

Marlene Mortler was born on 16 October 1955 in Lauf an der Pegnitz, in Middle Franconia in Bavaria, and is a politician of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria. The Bundestag biography for the 18th electoral term lists her as Protestant, married and the mother of three children. After the Mittlere Reife she attended the agricultural school in Roth, and in 1981 she passed the master's examination in rural home economics (ländliche Hauswirtschaft). In 1983 she took over her parents' farm in Lauf-Dehnberg.

She has sat on the district council of Nürnberger Land since 1990. She joined the Women's Union of Bavaria in 1996, became deputy chair of the CSU association in Middle Franconia in June 2009, joined the CSU party executive in October 2011, and in November 2011 became state chair of the CSU's agriculture working group. Mortler entered the Bundestag in 2002 as the directly elected member for Roth (Wahlkreis 246) in Bavaria. At the 2017 federal election she received 81,874 first votes in that constituency, 44.5 percent of the valid first votes. In parliament she was the CSU Landesgruppe's spokesperson on agriculture and consumer policy in 2004–2005, chaired the Committee on Tourism from 2006 to 2009, and was tourism spokesperson of the CDU/CSU group from 2009 to 2013. From January 2014 she was deputy chair of the CSU Landesgruppe and chair of its working group on food, agriculture, the environment, nature conservation, construction and reactor safety, and a full member of the Committee on Food and Agriculture.

On 15 January 2014 the federal cabinet accepted a proposal from Health Minister Hermann Gröhe and appointed her Commissioner of the Federal Government for Drug Affairs for the 18th legislative period. She said she would concentrate on addiction prevention and help for people with addiction, and she described prevention, counselling and treatment, harm reduction, and legal measures to reduce supply as the approach that had proved itself in Germany. She named children in families affected by addiction, excessive alcohol misuse among young people, and the spread of synthetic drugs as priorities, and said she would reconvene a Drug and Addiction Council. On 11 April 2018 the cabinet, on a proposal from Health Minister Jens Spahn, confirmed her in the post for the 19th legislative period.

Asked in 2014 by the YouTube programme Jung & Naiv why alcohol was permitted and cannabis was forbidden, she answered, "Weil Cannabis eine illegale Droge ist. Punkt." ("Because cannabis is an illegal drug. Period."), a sentence the Süddeutsche Zeitung quoted on 12 November 2015. The same article reported her website statement that legalisation would be the wrong signal because cannabis carried considerable health risks, especially for young people.

On 1 July 2019 Spahn formally bade her farewell as drug commissioner. The commissioner's office stated that she was taking a seat in the European Parliament on 2 July, that she had held the drug post since 15 January 2014, and that her work had focused on designer drugs, including crystal meth, on children in families affected by addiction, and on prevention campaigns, including patronage of "bunt statt blau". She gave up her Bundestag membership with effect from the end of 1 July 2019, and Dr Astrid Freudenstein (CDU/CSU) succeeded her on 2 July 2019. In December 2024 the president of the Bavarian Landtag, Ilse Aigner, awarded Mortler, listed as a former member of the European Parliament and a rural home-economics master from Lauf an der Pegnitz, the Bavarian Constitutional Order for her political work. Top Agrar reported on 3 December 2024 that Artur Auernhammer had handed her the chair of the Federal Bioenergy Association (Bundesverband Bioenergie) at the association's members' assembly, and that she had criticised federal policy on bioenergy.

Early life and education

Family and Dehnberg

Marlene Mortler was born on 16 October 1955 in Lauf an der Pegnitz, in Middle Franconia, Bavaria. Bundestag biographies, which the parliament states are based on members' own information, list her as Protestant.

She grew up on her parents' farm, the Hopfenhof, in Dehnberg, a village of about 260 people near Lauf. Dehnberg, with the hamlets of Egelsee, Ziegelhütte and Höflas, was a separate municipality until Lauf incorporated it in 1977 during Bavaria's territorial reform, and it is now a district of the town in the rural district of Nürnberger Land.

On her own website she wrote that she was born Marlene Hengelein, daughter of Konrad Hengelein, and grew up there with a twin brother on a farm first recorded in 1380 and in the family since 1780; that her parents combined hop growing with dairying until they gave up hops in the 1960s; and that at the age of three and a half she and her brother contracted poliomyelitis, from which she recovered while he was left with a walking disability, and that she stood by him when he needed help.

Her father was village mayor—known locally as "Sheriff"—and later Ortssprecher, the village spokesman. The office was in the family house, which stood between the church and the inn. She recalled that politicians from the district often met nearby on Fridays and then came to the house, and that as a child she listened to discussion of the Landkreis and of Lauf.

She married the trained merchant Siegfried Mortler; a report published on 23 June 2017 said he had died that week, aged 67, of a heart attack while hiking, and that the couple, who had three children, would have been married for 42 years that autumn.

Schooling and the master's examination

The Bundestag biographies record an intermediate school-leaving certificate (Mittlere Reife), attendance at the agricultural school (Landwirtschaftsschule) in Roth, and, in 1981, the master's examination in rural home economics (ländliche Hauswirtschaft). For the 19th electoral term her stated profession was Hauswirtschaftsmeisterin, master of home economics. In Bavaria the Meister or Meisterin der Hauswirtschaft is a further-training qualification for managerial work in home economics, for self-employment in that field, and for training apprentices.

In 1981 she accompanied her mother, then Ortsbäuerin in Dehnberg, to the village meeting at which a successor was to be chosen, and was elected herself. A year later she became Kreisbäuerin and thus chair of the Landfrauen, the rural women's group, in Nürnberger Land, an honorary office in the Bayerischer Bauernverband that she described as covering farmers' social and political concerns and further training, especially for women in the countryside. In 1983 she took over her parents' agricultural holding in Lauf-Dehnberg.

Farming and the Bavarian Farmers' Association

The family farm

Marlene Mortler grew up on her parents' farm, the Hopfenhof, in Dehnberg, then a village of about 260 people between the church and the inn and now part of Lauf an der Pegnitz in the district of Nürnberger Land, Middle Franconia. After the intermediate school certificate (Mittlere Reife) she attended the agricultural school in Roth. In 1981 she passed the master's examination in rural home economics (Meisterin der ländlichen Hauswirtschaft), and in 1983 she took over her parents' farm at Lauf-Dehnberg.

For several decades she ran the holding with her husband Siegfried Mortler, a trained merchant; a report after his death in 2017 said the couple had also built a packaging business beside the farm. On her own website she wrote that dairy cattle and hops no longer carried the enterprise, and that feed and food, organic as well as conventional, together with processed cereal products (Getreideaufschlussprodukte) and cash crops, did. Around 1991 Siegfried Mortler, described as a farmer and merchant, and two partners founded Pesika Naturpack GmbH in Dehnberg, expanding maize—a renewable raw material—into packaging popcorn meant to replace polystyrene loose-fill. The flakes were not for people to eat; buyers could compost them or, in some trades, use them as feed. By a visit reported in 2010, a son was running the farm itself and Pesika was a second line of business: biodegradable packaging had come first, and the work had shifted to preparing grains for the food and pharmaceutical industries. In 2011 Mortler still spoke of working that farm with her husband alongside parliamentary duties, and said the combination depended on the family's support.

Landfrauen and Bezirksbäuerin

Her offices in the Bayerischer Bauernverband (BBV) were in its rural women's organization, the Landfrauen. In 1981 she went with her mother to a meeting in Dehnberg called to elect a new Ortsbäuerin, the local women's representative, and was chosen to succeed her. A year later she became Kreisbäuerin for Nürnberger Land and thereby chair of the county Landfrauen, an honorary post she said she held for 22 years, covering farmers' social and political concerns and further training, especially for women in the countryside.

From 1992 to 2012 she was Bezirksbäuerin of the BBV in Middle Franconia, succeeding Eva Schwarz of Buchheim. For the first five of those years she was second deputy Landesbäuerin, a deputy state chair of the association's women farmers, and for the following fifteen the first deputy. A Bundestag biography current in December 2009 also listed her as a member of the BBV Präsidium and as chair of the association's Middle Franconia district, with its seat recorded at Ansbach. She kept those offices after entering the Bundestag in 2002, and at her farewell was described within the association as its voice in parliament.

She and Bezirkspräsident Jürgen Ströbel left their posts in the spring of 2012. In August that year, in the former margravial riding hall at Triesdorf, Middle Franconia's agricultural education centre, the BBV named her Ehrenbezirksbäuerin. Christine Reitelshöfer, from the Ansbach district, succeeded her and is listed by the association as Bezirksbäuerin of Middle Franconia since 2012. At the farewell, Reitelshöfer credited Mortler with presenting women farmers in public as modern agricultural businesswomen, and recalled her seats on the Triesdorf advisory board, the board of the village-helper service at the Hesselberg, and the media council of the Bavarian authority for new media.

Local politics and the CSU

District council

Marlene Mortler sat on the district council (Kreistag) of Nürnberger Land from 1990 until the end of the 2020–2026 term. An October 2002 Bundestag biography recorded that she had been a councillor since 1990 and had been re-elected, and that she had been deputy district administrator (stellvertretende Landrätin) since 1996, likewise after a further election. The biography current on 4 May 2010 specified the second office as first deputy (erste stellvertretende Landrätin), held from 1996 to 2004. In the Bundestag register of outside posts the seat was unpaid.

She kept it through her years in the Bundestag and the European Parliament. At the municipal election reported by N-Land on 18 March 2020 she received 51,848 votes, the most on the Christian Social Union (CSU) list, standing from Lauf an der Pegnitz. The CSU remained the largest group, with 22 of 70 seats, two fewer than before.

She was not on the 70-name CSU list adopted on 22 October 2025 for the Kreistag election the following spring. The Nürnberger Nachrichten reported on 24 April 2026 that Mortler, Horst Topp and Otto Wolze were leaving a council on which the three together had served more than 90 years. N-Land wrote on 5 May 2026 that Landrat Armin Kroder had thanked 29 outgoing members, including Mortler, and that more than 40 percent of the 70 members would not return. The Kreisverband lists her as an honorary member, not as a member of its current council group.

Party offices

Mortler joined the CSU in 1989. In June 2009 the Bezirksverband for Middle Franconia (Mittelfranken) elected her a deputy chair. At the Bezirksparteitag in Ansbach in June 2011 she was re-elected a deputy to Bezirksvorsitzender Joachim Herrmann, with 109 of 113 votes cast, alongside Christina Diener of Schnaittach. She did not stand again at the Bezirksparteitag in Rednitzhembach on 29 June 2019, telling N-Land that Cornelia Trinkl would take the post.

From October 2011 she belonged to the CSU Parteivorstand. Result sheets list her again among the additional women members, with 394 votes on 18 October 2019 and 307 votes on 23 September 2023, and once more at the congress in Munich on 12 December 2025.

On 26 November 2011 the party chronicle records her election as chair of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Landwirtschaft (AGL), succeeding Albert Deß, chair since 1995. In a 2017 questionnaire she described the post as state chair of the CSU working group on nutrition, agriculture and forestry, the name later used in full for the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Ernährung, Landwirtschaft und Forsten (AG ELF). She did not run at its Landesversammlung in Triesdorf on 15 February 2025; Landtag of Bavaria member Petra Högl was elected chair with 100 percent of the votes. At the Landesversammlung in Kelheim in June 2026 the Landesvorstand proposed, and the meeting named, Mortler honorary chair, after what Högl described as more than 14 years in office.

She joined the Frauen-Union Bayern in 1996 and from February 2014 sat on its Landesvorstand. The CSU profile dates the co-option to 7 February 2014; she still listed the membership in a 2017 questionnaire.

Member of the Bundestag

Elections in Roth

Marlene Mortler, standing for the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), won the direct mandate for the Roth constituency in Bavaria at each election to the Bundestag from 2002 through 2017. The Federal Returning Officer's tables identify the seat as Wahlkreis 247 (Roth) for 2005, with that result set against 2002, and as Wahlkreis 246 (Roth) for 2009, 2013 and 2017. In the 2017 division the constituency comprised the districts of Nürnberger Land and Roth.

At the 1998 election the directly elected CSU candidate was Hansgeorg Hauser, with 84,804 first votes (47.56 percent). In 2002 Mortler was the CSU candidate and received 101,906 first votes (55.19 percent). Verena Wohlleben of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) took 35.11 percent, and turnout in the constituency was 84.62 percent.

The Federal Returning Officer recorded Mortler's re-election in 2005 with 91,633 first votes (51.0 percent), against 33.6 percent for the SPD. In 2009, in the renumbered constituency 246, her share was 75,280 votes (44.6 percent), with the SPD on 24.0 percent. In 2013 the CSU's first-vote total in Roth was 84,618 (50.6 percent) and the SPD's 46,200 (27.6 percent). The Bundestag's biography for the 18th term lists Mortler as the member directly elected for Wahlkreis 246.

In 2017 she was again directly elected, with 81,874 first votes (44.5 percent). The SPD, recorded as the runner-up, received 37,920 votes (20.6 percent), and the Alternative for Germany 18,925 (10.3 percent). Turnout was 81.7 percent of 227,560 eligible voters.

Parliamentary roles and the 2019 resignation

The Bundestag biographies for the 18th and 19th terms, which reproduce the member's own account, state that Mortler had sat in the Bundestag since 2002. They list her as the CSU Landesgruppe's spokesperson on agriculture and consumer policy from 2004 to 2005, chair of the Committee on Tourism from 2006 to 2009, and tourism-policy spokesperson of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group from 2009 to 2013. The substance of that work is set out in the sections on agriculture, food and consumer policy and on tourism policy. From 2010 the same biographies record membership of the German-Maltese parliamentary group.

In the 18th term she was a full member of the Committee on Food and Agriculture and a deputy member of the Tourism Committee. On 27 January 2014 the CSU Landesgruppe elected her, with Hans Michelbach and Stephan Stracke, as a deputy chair under Gerda Hasselfeldt; the group said the number of deputies rose from two to three because it then had 56 members. From January 2014 the biographies also name her as chair of the Landesgruppe's working group VI, covering food, agriculture, the environment, nature conservation, building and reactor safety, and as the federal government's drug commissioner, an office treated in a later section. The 19th-term biography still listed the deputy chairmanship and the working-group chair as held since January 2014.

She left before the end of the 19th term. After the 2019 European Parliament election, a report of 27 May 2019 said she had won a seat from sixth place on the CSU list and would give up the Bundestag mandate held for 17 years, together with the drug-commissioner post. In early June a spokesperson told Deutsches Ärzteblatt that she would accept the European Parliament mandate and move on 2 July. The Bundestag records that she renounced her membership and left at the end of 1 July 2019. Dr. Astrid Freudenstein, who had joined the CSU in 2004 and sat in the Bundestag from 2013 to 2017, acquired the seat on 2 July 2019 in Mortler's place. Freudenstein resigned with effect from the end of 15 May 2020; the Bundestag names Tobias Zech as her successor.

Agriculture, food and consumer policy

Committee and spokesperson work

Mortler's agricultural brief in the Bundestag was interrupted by tourism offices. The historical register of the Christian Social Union (CSU) lists her as Obfrau of the Committee on Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture from 2002 to 2005, and in 2004–2005 as head of the Landesgruppe's Working Group VI on agriculture, food, consumer protection and related fields. Her Bundestag biography, based on her own information, records an agricultural and consumer-policy spokespersonship of the Landesgruppe only for 2004–2005, then the Tourism Committee chair (2006–2009) and the CDU/CSU tourism spokespersonship (2009–2013). From January 2014 it names her chair of Working Group VI, on food, agriculture and the environment, and deputy chair of the CSU Landesgruppe; the listed remainder of the brief differed slightly between the 18th and 19th terms. The party register dates the agriculture, food and environment spokespersonship, tied to that chair, from 2013 rather than January 2014.

In the 18th term (2013–2017) she was a full member of the Committee on Food and Agriculture and a substitute on Tourism. After the 2013 election she represented the CSU on the coalition working group on the environment and agriculture, led by Katherina Reiche (Christian Democratic Union) and Ute Vogt (Social Democratic Party); agrarheute listed animal welfare and land take among its topics. In the failed 2017 "Jamaica" talks she was rapporteur with Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt on agriculture and consumer protection, alongside Renate Künast of Alliance 90/The Greens. She told N-Land the group had a paper fit for a coalition text, and that the CSU had accepted a binding animal label instead of the voluntary Tierwohl label.

Disclosures for the 18th and 19th terms list two unpaid posts: membership of the board of trustees of QS Qualität und Sicherheit GmbH in Bonn, and deputy chair of the administrative board of the Absatzförderungsfonds der deutschen Land- und Ernährungswirtschaft, also in Bonn. On 3 February 2009 the Federal Constitutional Court, in 2 BvL 54/06, held that the fund's levy, which financed the Centrale Marketing-Gesellschaft (CMA) and the market reporter ZMP, had been an unconstitutional special levy at least since 1 July 2002.

Positions on farming and food

In October 2003 she signed a CDU/CSU motion to promote renewable raw materials as a "Multitalent", citing a largely closed carbon cycle and opposing cuts in the agriculture ministry's budget for that work. As the European Union milk quota ended on 31 March 2015, the CDU/CSU and SPD tabled a motion welcoming the market turn fixed in the 2003 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, while asking that price volatility, smaller farms, grassland and welfare in dairy herds be supported through rural-development programmes.

She opposed traffic-light labels. In October 2009 she wrote on Abgeordnetenwatch that they misled buyers by marking oily fish, olives, nuts, bananas and milk, and that nutrition education mattered more. On 17 January 2019 she said there were no healthy or unhealthy foods, only diets, and that a traffic light would not replace reading a label. She backed Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner's cuts to sugar, fat and salt, called a foodwatch attack on Klöckner indecent, and argued for neutral state nutrition advice.

On 12 December 2017 she defended Schmidt's yes to renewing the approval of glyphosate, calling it a "Kampfbegriff für das Böse" and, when used as directed, "das harmloseste Pflanzenschutzmittel im Vergleich". She said the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment saw no health risk in proper use, and likened the International Agency for Research on Cancer finding to its classification of sausage and ham. Karl Lauterbach (SPD) replied that co-formulants remained the risk and that she had played the danger down; Rita Hagl-Kehl rejected calling a breach of coalition practice courage. On 15 December, at the CSU congress in Nuremberg, BUND Naturschutz in Bayern, the Umweltinstitut München and Campact handed her 523,549 signatures for a national ban. Richard Mergner said glyphosate stood for a farm policy that had speeded the decline of insects and birds. In that debate she also backed "Zu gut für die Tonne" and said households still threw away 40 percent of Germany's food.

Tourism policy

Chair of the Tourism Committee

Marlene Mortler chaired the Bundestag Committee on Tourism in the 16th electoral term. A press notice of 10 July 2006 already named the CSU member as chair, and she still held the office at the ITB Berlin in March 2009.

After the 2006 FIFA World Cup she cited a German National Tourist Board survey in which 90 percent of international guests said they would recommend Germany. In December 2006 she backed a CDU/CSU–SPD motion asking the Länder and municipalities to raise the quality and signposting of cycle routes. As chair she signed the committee report of 12 March 2008 on trade fairs and business travel (Drucksache 16/9255). The coalition motion, recommended by the CDU/CSU and SPD against the Left and the Greens, with the FDP abstaining, cited more than 1.85 million events and 54.4 billion euro in turnover; the Greens said it ignored climate effects and poor links to rural hotels. In September 2008 she said the federal tourism budget had been raised to 28 million euro. At the March 2009 ITB she expected a “renaissance” of domestic holidays in the financial crisis, urged rural regions to cooperate on quality, and said a kerosene tax made sense only if applied worldwide.

Spokesperson for the CDU/CSU group

She did not keep the chair after the 2009 election. On 20 November 2009 the Nürnberger Land reported that the new distribution of posts had left the chair uncertain and that the CDU/CSU group had named her its tourism-policy spokesperson and head of its tourism working group; she remained on the tourism and agriculture committees. In the committee’s constitutive sitting that November, members elected Klaus Brähmig (CDU) chair.

At the 2010 ITB she said more German holidays at home had offset fewer foreign visitors, and that about 369 million overnight stays in 2009 had placed Germany ahead of Spain and Italy. A 2011 Bundestag profile quoted her phrase “Lust auf Land”: rural regions, she said, still gained too little from the boom.

On 9 May 2012 she led the coalition motion on rural tourism (Drucksache 17/9570). Using a study for the economics ministry, it put 2010 consumption near 280 billion euro, recorded 394 million overnight stays in 2011 concentrated in cities, and asked for more tourist-board marketing, joint-task and EU funds, and broadband. With Brähmig chairing and Mortler as rapporteur, the committee on 24 October 2012 recommended adoption by the CDU/CSU and FDP against the SPD and the Left, the Greens abstaining. In March 2012 she urged travellers to Egypt, that year’s ITB partner, to follow Foreign Office advice and defended the reduced VAT on hotels, citing more than 900 million euro of investment. In June 2013 she cited 407.3 million overnight stays for 2012, and that September she was still the group’s tourism spokesperson.

Federal Drug Commissioner

Appointment and remit

On 15 January 2014 the federal cabinet, on a proposal from Federal Health Minister Hermann Gröhe of the Christian Democratic Union, appointed Bundestag member Marlene Mortler of the Christian Social Union Commissioner for Drug Affairs (Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Drogenfragen). Gröhe introduced her the same day. She was to coordinate federal drug and addiction policy and represent it in public. She succeeded Mechthild Dyckmans of the Free Democratic Party, in the post since 2009.

She said she would emphasise prevention and help for people with addiction, and that four pillars—prevention, counselling and treatment, harm reduction, and legal limits on supply—had proved themselves. She reconvened the Drug and Addiction Council (Drogen- und Suchtrat) of ministries, municipalities, services, research and self-help. It met on 1 December 2014 and set up groups on prevention among young adults and on staying in work.

On 11 April 2018 the cabinet confirmed her on a proposal from Health Minister Jens Spahn. She again called dependence an illness to discuss with those affected, and named children in families affected by addiction. She left on 1 July 2019, the day before taking a seat in the European Parliament, after more than five years. On 18 September 2019 the cabinet appointed CSU deputy Daniela Ludwig. The Federal Ministry of Health described the office as supporting prevention and representing drug and addiction policy in public and abroad.

Prevention, crystal meth and families

Presenting the 2014 drug and addiction report, Mortler said methamphetamine ("crystal meth") was not yet nationwide but seemed to be spreading from the German–Czech border. She sought closer cooperation with the Czech authorities and said users included pupils, students and workers taking it for performance, young mothers, and people in club and gay scenes. A Robert Koch Institute study in the report found that 31 percent of men and just under 11 percent of women aged 18 to 29 drank six or more drinks at least monthly; Mortler said hospital admissions of 10- to 15-year-olds for excessive drinking had tripled since 2000. Green spokesman Harald Terpe said the report did not stop prosecuting consumers.

She patronised "bunt statt blau – Kunst gegen Komasaufen" ("colourful instead of blue – art against binge drinking"), a DAK-Gesundheit poster contest for pupils aged 12 to 17. At the tenth round in 2019 the organisers cited more than 20,000 hospital cases of acute alcohol poisoning a year among young people, and 2,764 among those up to 15 in 2017.

In 2016 the cabinet adopted the New Psychoactive Substances Act. The Bundestag passed it on 22 September against the opposition: it banned such substances by chemical group, criminalised manufacture and trade, exempted legitimate uses, and rejected Green and Left alternatives. Mortler said herbal mixtures and bath salts only looked harmless, that 39 people in Germany had died the previous year after using them, and that group bans would protect health.

In February 2017 she and Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt pressed for a ban on outdoor tobacco advertising and strict cinema limits before the federal election. She said school prevention was outweighed by advertising on children's way to school, and cited more than 120,000 tobacco deaths a year. Deutsches Ärzteblatt reported that the draft had stalled on resistance in the CDU/CSU group and parts of the Social Democratic Party.

Her 2017 priority was children with a parent who had an addiction. In a ministry brochure she put their number above three million and called for local guides linking schools, health care, addiction services and youth welfare. At the 19 June conference she said 2.65 million were affected by parental alcohol dependence and more than 60,000 by parental opioid dependence, with a three- to fourfold risk of their own addiction.

Medical cannabis and treatment

"Cannabis as medicine", an amendment of narcotics law, took effect on 10 March 2017. Doctors could prescribe cannabis medicines, including dried flowers, for serious illness if they expected a noticeable benefit, in pain, multiple sclerosis, or severe nausea and loss of appetite. Statutory insurers were to pay when no other treatment worked. A cannabis agency at the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices was to control cultivation in Germany, with imports until then, and doctors were to file anonymised data for a survey.

On 16 January 2017, before the Bundestag vote, Mortler said on a palliative ward that this was not a step toward lifting the general ban on cannabis. She opposed non-medical supply because she expected easier availability to raise use, and said: "Cannabis as medicine is certainly no miracle cure," though it should be paid for if it helped. About 1,000 patients then held individual permits for flowers or extracts; those permits were to end, and she said insurers would have three to five days to decide on payment.

On 15 March 2017 the cabinet amended substitution rules for dependence on illegal drugs. More than 77,000 people were in treatment. Clinical decisions moved to guidelines of the German Medical Association; supervised dosing stayed the rule, while stable patients could in some cases receive up to 30 days of medicine instead of seven, and more facilities could dispense it. In August 2017 she published an editorial in SUCHT titled "Leben retten: Zur Novellierung der Opiatsubstitution in Deutschland".

Cannabis debate and public criticism

Arguments and the alcohol comparison

As federal drug commissioner, Marlene Mortler of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria opposed legalising cannabis for non-medical use. In November 2014 she said celebrities such as Thomas D should weigh their words on illegal drugs. Citing a monitoring report, she called cannabis the most used illegal drug and the main reason for a first addiction treatment, and legalisation "ein völlig falsches Signal" ("a completely wrong signal").

The comparison with alcohol framed the dispute. In the Bundestag on 20 March 2015, during the first reading of a cannabis-control bill from Alliance 90/The Greens, she said Germany already had enough problems with alcohol and tobacco and need not issue "an additional invitation" to cannabis. She linked early use to dependence and possible lasting brain damage, and cited the 1961 UN convention's limit to medical and scientific use. In August 2016 Nordbayern put to her its figure of 74,000 alcohol-related deaths in 2015 and none from cannabis. She answered that alcohol was "tief verwurzelt" ("deeply rooted") and that a ban had no majority; her course was education and controls on sales to minors. Another legal drug would be the wrong signal: cannabis remained the main reason people sought help for illegal-drug problems, about 200,000 were dependent, and a Colorado pilot would be a "money-printing machine."

On 12 November 2015 the Süddeutsche Zeitung called alcohol the "society drug" and asked why marijuana was under the Narcotics Act when alcohol was not. It set Mortler's appeal to moderation—water and alcohol-free beer, she had said, could taste wonderful—against what it called zero tolerance for other drugs. Raphael Gaßmann of the German Centre for Addiction Issues said policy promoted alcohol and banned other substances regardless of effect. She told Spiegel in 2016 that if schnapps were invented today she would imagine banning it, but that cannabis for leisure should stay illegal. At the 2017 report she said past-year adult use was 6.1 percent, the highest since 2003, potency about four times 1970s levels, and Colorado youth use up 20 percent after legalisation, with more poisonings of small children.

Petitions, media and political responses

The German Hemp Association's 2014 cinema spots argued that prohibition enriched dealers and criminalised consumers. Mortler said the group played "auf schäbige Art und Weise" ("in a shabby way") on people's fears and sought full legalisation for intoxication. In the Bundestag she called that circle the most brutal lobby of her career and said a Facebook page had called for her execution. Christian Democratic Union and CSU deputies applauded; she said the coalition partner backed both wider medical access and rejection of the Green bill. Stern reported that the page was taken down after her office approached Facebook, and, from a 2015 Zeit interview, that she had been called a mass murderer because cannabis supposedly cured every illness—conduct she described as unmatched in thirteen years in Berlin. She told Nordbayern she had closed Facebook after every sentence drew what she called unobjective comments.

A 2015 Change.org petition by Daniel Gerecke asked the Bundestag petitions committee to remove her as unqualified and as feeding a black market. It closed at 20,714 supporters. Stern reported more than 20,000 signatures and that a committee secretary said expressions of opinion were not taken up. Maximilian Plenert of the Hemp Association told Stern she had "simply no knowledge of drug policy" and was a low-power symbol of grand-coalition standstill. Stern gave her formula as medicine yes, use "for fun" no. His chosen line, from Apotheken Umschau, was her refusal of an alcohol-advertising ban—"cannot and does not want to be a prohibition state"—and then, as he recounted it, "Cannabis ist eine illegale Droge" ("Cannabis is an illegal drug").

On 1 June 2017 Green co-chair Cem Özdemir wrote that cannabis criminalisation had "krachend gescheitert" ("failed resoundingly") and asked for regulated adult supply that year. Zeit reported his figure that 80 percent of about 145,000 cannabis offences in 2016 were consumer cases and had not cut use. The Bundestag was due to vote on the Green bill the next day. At that report, Die Linke deputy Frank Tempel said deaths from illegal drugs were up 30 percent under her—1,333 in 2016—and that dependence needed help, not punishment; she said the medical law worked. In May 2019 Rezo's YouTube film Die Zerstörung der CDU cited her as an example of "pure incompetence" in the Union. n-tv described the video as aimed chiefly at climate policy.

Member of the European Parliament

Election and groups

Marlene Mortler sat in the European Parliament for its ninth term only, from 2 July 2019 to 15 July 2024, as a member of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria and of the Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats).

Marlene Mortler holding her European Parliament member badge for 2019–2024.

She entered from sixth place on the CSU list for Bavaria, fixed by a state delegates' assembly in Munich on 24 November 2018 behind Manfred Weber, Angelika Niebler, Markus Ferber, Monika Hohlmeier and Christian Doleschal. She told the Nürnberger Zeitung that the place should show that farmers' and consumers' concerns still mattered to the CSU. Germany voted on 26 May 2019. The CSU, standing only in Bavaria, received 2,355,067 votes — 6.3 percent nationally and 40.7 percent in Bavaria — and six seats, so sixth place was the last name elected. She did not stand in 2024. After the 9 June election the Augsburger Allgemeine reported that she had declined another term, quoting her site that one should stop when things are at their best; Stefan Köhler succeeded her, and the CSU again won six seats.

For the whole term she was a full member of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and a substitute on the Committee on Development. From 11 February 2020 she was also a substitute on the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. On the Delegation for relations with South Africa she was a member from 2 July 2019 and vice-chair from 26 September 2019 until the term ended.

Agriculture, animal transport and mercury

From 19 June 2020 she sat on the Committee of Inquiry on the Protection of Animals during Transport, and from 23 September 2020 she was its first vice-chair, until the committee ended on 19 December 2021. The inquiry examined alleged serious and systematic breaches of the rules on live-animal journeys inside the Union and to non-EU countries. In March 2021 she argued that the 2005 transport regulation was still not applied uniformly and that harmonised enforcement should precede any revision.

On 9 November 2022 the agriculture committee named her rapporteur for own-initiative procedure 2022/2183(INI), on food security and the long-term resilience of EU agriculture.) Report A9-0185/2023, tabled on 10 May 2023, was adopted on 14 June by 447 votes to 142, with 31 abstentions; Mortler voted in favour.) Most EPP members voted in favour; the Greens–European Free Alliance voted 1–63–1 and The Left 1–20, with 15 abstentions. Framed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia's war against Ukraine and climate change, the non-binding resolution called for less dependence on imported fertiliser, feed and raw materials, a plan that could include stocks, a protein and feed strategy, and more support for producers, including precision farming. It called the European Green Deal a possible milestone but said some measures might have unassessed effects on farms, and asked the European Commission to keep agricultural activity across the Union.

Only a substitute on the environment committee, she was nevertheless appointed its rapporteur on 23 August 2023 for 2023/0272(COD), amending the 2017 mercury regulation on dental amalgam and other mercury-added products.) Report A9-0002/2024 was tabled on 12 January 2024; after talks with the Council, Parliament adopted the agreement on 10 April by 575 votes to 12, with 38 abstentions.) The Council of the European Union adopted the act on 30 May 2024, and Regulation (EU) 2024/1849 was signed on 13 June and published on 10 July.) From 1 January 2025 amalgam may not be used unless a dentist judges it strictly necessary for specific medical needs. States where it is the only filling reimbursed from public funds at a rate of at least 90 percent, and where mercury-free alternatives are not yet reimbursed, may allow use until 30 June 2026. Export is banned from 1 January 2025, and manufacturing and import from 1 July 2026, aside from those medical needs. About 40 tonnes of mercury a year were still used for amalgam, the old limits having covered only children under 15 and pregnant and breastfeeding women. Mortler called the result a step towards a mercury-free future and defended the exceptions as protection for low-income patients.

Bioenergy and later activities

Chair of the Federal Bioenergy Association

On 22 November 2024 the members’ assembly of the Bundesverband Bioenergie (BBE) elected Marlene Mortler unanimously as chair. She succeeded Artur Auernhammer, agricultural-policy spokesman of the Christian Social Union in the Bundestag, who after nine years did not stand again and was named honorary chair. She had been a member of the Bundestag and, from 2019, of the European Parliament, and did not stand again in June 2024.

Founded in 1998, the BBE is the umbrella for German bioenergy, grouping associations and companies that use solid, liquid and gaseous biomass for electricity, heat and transport. The Bundestag lobby register, which names Mortler as an authorised representative, recorded 163 organisational members on 26 November 2025 and treats the Fachverband Holzenergie as a department of the BBE, not a separate association.

Policy arguments after parliament

In her inaugural speech Mortler said the sector expected “clear and decisive action” from the next federal government. She accused the government then in office of failing to investigate allegedly fraudulent imports of so-called advanced biodiesel and forged upstream-emission-reduction certificates. Apart from a biomass package announced by economy minister Robert Habeck, she said, biogas plants still lacked a route once remuneration under the Renewable Energy Sources Act ended, and she asked for larger auctions of “secured and flexibly controllable” capacity. She called the wood factor in the Federal Environment Agency’s CO₂ calculator politically motivated.

In 2025 she argued for fewer rules and firmer support. In January she told top agrar that bioenergy needed more reliability and less regulatory zeal (“Regelungswut”). In September, as chair of the wood-energy department, she said the coalition agreement had not produced stable rules or funding, and that barring biomass plants above 7.5 megawatts from process-heat aid meant gas boilers were still being installed. At the wood-energy congress in Würzburg she said that without wood energy the heat transition would be “a house without a foundation”, opposed treating biomass electricity as non-renewable for tax purposes, and stated that wood supplied power and two-thirds of renewable heat. At a BBE parliamentary evening in Berlin on 26 November 2025 she linked expiring EEG support to forged fuel certificates and called for a simpler “Bioenergy Act 2.0”. Christian Schmidt of the economic-affairs ministry said bioenergy had to be more flexible and residue-based, and could not receive double subsidies.

The agency and conservation groups read the same fuels differently. In March 2024 the Environment Agency began counting CO₂ released when wood is burned in its personal calculator, not only harvest and transport, so that carbon in forests and long-lived products is not netted in advance against chimney emissions. It says the calculator has no legal effect on existing stoves and that wood should be used first as a material. The Naturschutzbund Deutschland argues that wood emits more CO₂ per unit of energy than fossil fuels, citing Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change figures of nearly twice as much as natural gas. It opposes promoting wood and energy crops as climate-neutral and wants energy use limited to residues and wastes that cannot be used as materials.

Personal life and honours

Family

Mortler is Protestant and has her home in Dehnberg, a district of Lauf an der Pegnitz in the rural district of Nürnberger Land. The Bundestag biography for the 19th legislative period records her as widowed and the mother of three children. A profile of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria names two sons and a daughter, and five grandchildren.

In June 2017 her husband, the businessman Siegfried Mortler, died at the age of 67 after a heart attack while hiking. N-LAND and Nordbayern, drawing on what she told the Pegnitz-Zeitung, reported that he telephoned her because he felt unwell while she was in Berlin for a Bundestag sitting week; she alerted the rescue services, but he could not be saved. The couple would have marked 42 years of marriage that autumn, and they had three adult children.

Orders and medals

On 5 December 2024 Ilse Aigner, president of the Landtag of Bavaria, presented the Bavarian Constitutional Order (Bayerischer Verfassungsorden) in the Senate Hall of the Maximilianeum. Among 44 recipients, the Landtag listed Mortler, a master of rural home economics and former member of the European Parliament from Lauf an der Pegnitz, for her outstanding political engagement. Awarded in a single class since 2021, the order recognises citizens who have particularly served the principles of the Bavarian constitution; it continues the Bavarian Constitutional Medal instituted on 1 December 1961.

For the 2020 cohort the Landtag named her among the recipients of that medal in silver, which Aigner presented on 25 June 2021. The Bavarian Farmers' Association reported that Mortler, then a member of the European Parliament and a former deputy Landesbäuerin, received it that day with Landesbäuerin Anneliese Göller.

On 29 July 2010 Minister-President Horst Seehofer conferred the Bavarian Order of Merit in the Antiquarium of the Munich Residenz. The state chancellery list of 57 recipients names Mortler, then deputy Landesbäuerin and a Bundestag member, of Lauf an der Pegnitz. Created by a law of 11 June 1957, the order is given as a sign of recognition for outstanding services to the Free State of Bavaria and the Bavarian people. At its 2017 meeting in Morschen, the Bundesverband Landwirtschaftlicher Fachbildung awarded her the Theodor-Hensen Medal for her work on agriculture and rural education, and described her as already holding the Bavarian order and the Verdienstkreuz am Bande of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.