Petra Hinz (born 10 June 1962 in Essen) is a German politician and impostor. She is a member of the SPD. Since 2005, Hinz has been an MP of the German Bundestag.^[1] She resigned from her Bundestag seat after a CV scandal with effect of 1 September 2016.^[2]

Hinz left school with a university of applied sciences entrance qualification in 1983, and afterwards completed a year of internship at a local bank (Sparkasse) and a vocational training as a presenter from 1985 to 1987. From 1999 to 2003 she worked as a real estate manager. Hinz has been a SPD member since 1980 and worked for the party since 1982 in different positions, such as vice district chairwoman. From 1989 to 2005 she was a member of the Essen city council.^[1]

Hinz made headlines after allegations that she bullied her employees and faked essential parts of her curriculum vitae (CV), falsely claiming that she took her A-levels in 1984 and studied Law and Political Science for ten years from 1985 to 1995. Hinz admitted that she faked her CV.^[3] She resigned from her Bundestag mandate only after growing public pressure on 24 August 2016, but because of a formal error her request was considered as preliminary invalid by the Bundestag administration. On 30 August, it was reported that the resignation of her Bundestag seat with effect of 1 September 2016 was now formally accepted.^[2] Hinz also announced that she will resign from the SPD party until 5 September 2016, after the party had initiated internal proceedings against her.^[3] The case of Petra Hinz was viewed as a "disaster" for the SPD party.^[4]