Born 1974 in Hamburg. Educated and graduated from the University of Kiel. M.A. in archaeology, history and European ethnology (2000), PhD in archaeology (2003). Grants of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) at the University of Uppsala (1997/98) and the Centre for Viking and Medieval Studies, University of Oslo (2000-2002). Awarded the Travel Grant of the German Archaeological Institute in 2004/05, visiting the Eastern Mediterrean and the North Atlantic. Between 2006 and 2009 curator for the new permanent exhibition in the “Wikinger Museum Haithabu”, Schleswig. Senior Fellow at the Excellence Cluster Topoi „The Formation and Transformation of Space and Knowledge in Ancient Civilisations”, Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität Berlin, in 2009/10.

Birgit Maixners field of research is the Viking Age, with a special interest in decorated metal objects, their production and distribution, the organisation of long-distance distribution of goods in general, and the culture transfers between the Continent and Scandinavia during early medieval times. Her research in Topoi is about the reception of Carolingian-Ottonian models in Viking Age Scandinavia, focussing on  the role of the social elites in this process.