Maria Rentmeister (27 January 1905 - 10 May 1996) was a German political activist who became an anti-government resistance activist after 1933. She spent much of the time during the twelve Nazi years abroad or, later, in state detention. In 1945 she relocated to what now became the Soviet occupation zone (after October 1949 East Germany) where she became the first General Secretary of the politically important &lt;a href="Democratic%20Women%27s%20League%20of%20Germany"&gt;Democratic Women's League ("Demokratischer Frauenbund Deutschlands" / DFD)&lt;/a&gt;.