Britta Ernst is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany who has served as the State Minister for Education and Youth of Brandenburg from 2017 to 2023. She was a member of the Hamburg Parliament from 1997 to 2011, served as School Minister of Schleswig-Holstein from 2014 to 2017, and as president of the Kultusministerkonferenz in 2021. She is the wife of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.