Annekathrin Bürger was born on April 3, 1937, in Berlin-Charlottenburg and grew up in the Saxon village of Hornhausen near Oschersleben. She became a commercial artist for the HO atelier Bernburg, and then worked as a production design assistant and property master. But she failed the qualifying exam for the national drama school in Berlin/GDR. In the summer of 1955, Bürger met a Czech film crew and played a small role as a pioneer leader in the frame story of "Gebirge und Meer".

Shortly after, director Gerhard Klein discovered her for a part of a natural and naive young girl. Her movie debut, "Eine Berliner Romanze" was convincing and thus, Bürger attended drama school at the Potsdam-Babelsberg film school for three years. Besides, she regularly starred in DEFA movies, for instance, as the poised art school student Sonja in Slatan Dudow's "Die Verwirrung der Liebe". From 1960 on, Bürger performed for three years at Theater der Bergarbeiter in Senftenberg and then became a cast member at Berlin's Volksbühne. In 1968, Bürger won the Berliner Zeitung award of "Best actress of the season" for her part as grave digger/prostitute/nun Enea in Dario Fo's "Siebentes: Stiehl ein bißchen weniger!"

She celebrated even larger succes on the TV screen and in movies. With her parts as Hannelore in Kurt Maetzig's "Septemberliebe", and especially her parts as bourgeois girl Magdalena in Frank Beyer's "Königskinder" ("Royal Children") and as Petra Ledig in the TV movie "Wolf unter Wölfen", based on a story by Hans Fallada, Bürger became the most popular GDR actress of the 1960s alongside Angelica Domröse. She starred in light entertainment movies, in GDR western films ("Tecumseh", "Tödlicher Irrtum"). Her last, and personally important, film was "Der Rest, der bleibt" (1990), directed by Bodo Fürneisen.

Annekathrin Bürger was active in cultural policy in the GDR and often showed moral courage, for instance with her protest against Wolf Biermann's expatriation. In 1990, she became the chair woman of Kongress der Nationalen Bürgerbewegung. In the 1990s, Bürger was seen in several TV series, for instance as Corinna Grimm in "Wir sind auch nur ein Volk". Many TV viewers might know her from her succinct supporting role in the Leipzig branch of the "Tatort" crime series where Bürger starred as the best friend of inspector Bruno Ehrlicher from 1999 to 2007. Furthermore, her most important film and TV parts since 1990 include Bernd Böhlich's psychological drama "Mobbing: Die lieben Kollegen" (1995) and the award-winning drama "Die Mörderin" (1999), also starring Ann-Kathrin Kramer and Jürgen Hentsch.

She also became better known to television audiences for her striking supporting role in the Leipzig episodes of the "Tatort" series, in which she appeared from 1999 to 2007 as the best friend of detective Bruno Ehrlicher (Peter Sodann). After that, she was seen, among other things, in the series "Die Stein" alongside Julia Stemberger and Jochen Horst, and in a supporting role in the drama "Für Elise" (2012), about a 15-year-old who falls in love with a man more than twice her age.   

She played another supporting role in the tragicomedy "Sein letztes Rennen" ("Back on track"), which was released in 2013 and is about an 80-year-old former Olympian (Dieter Hallervorden) who, in a retirement home, sets his mind on winning the Berlin Marathon one more time. Alexandra Sell's drama "Die Anfängerin" ("The Beginner") had its theatrical release at the beginning of 2018. In the film, she took on the leading role of the domineering mother of a soon-to-be 60-year-old general practitioner (Ulrike Krumbiegel) who, following a childhood dream, takes up figure skating. In between and after that, she was seen in several TV productions in larger and smaller supporting roles, for example in 2014 in two episodes of the early evening series "Ein Fall von Liebe" as the mother of the main character and journalist Sarah Pohl (Mariella Ahrens), in 2015 in the ARD crime thriller "Zorn - Vom Lieben und Sterben", in which she played an allotment gardener couple with Peter Sodann, and in 2018 in the tragicomic family film "Pauls Weihnachtswunsch," about a boy who wants to use his unexpectedly acquired magical abilities to bring his separated parents back together.  

In addition to her film and television roles, Bürger has always performed successfully in chanson concerts and literary-musical programs, giving guest performances throughout Europe. She has also authored two books. In 2011 her autobiography "Der Rest, der bleibt. Erinnerungen an ein unvollkommenes Leben", which was followed in 2015 by "Weisheiten der Liebe" in collaboration with Christine Rammelt-Hadelich, which illuminates the diverse facets of love.  

In her first marriage she was married to the actor and director Ulrich Thein, with whom she appeared in front of the camera in several films. Since 1966 she was then married to the actor and director Rolf Römer, who died in March 2000. Annekathrin Bürger lives in Berlin.