Sybille Benning | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of theBundestag forMünster | |
| In office 2013–2021 | |
| Preceded by | Ruprecht Polenz |
| Succeeded by | Maria Klein-Schmeink |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1961-01-08)8 January 1961 |
| Died | 29 July 2022(2022-07-29) (aged 61) |
| Political party | CDU |
| Children | 4 |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Landscape designer |
Sybille Benning (8 January 1961 – 29 July 2022)[1] was a German politician of theChristian Democratic Union (CDU). In the2013 federal election she was elected to the GermanBundestag, representing the city ofMünster.
Benning was born inMünster, where she graduated from the Marienschule episcopal high school. Benning completed an apprenticeship in gardening and landscaping and then studied landscape conservation at theWeihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Science. Afterwards she graduated as a geographer (landscape ecology) fromWestfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster.
Benning worked freelance as a landscape designer.[2]
Benning became a member of the CDU in 2001. She was active in local politics since 2002 and was a directly elected member of the city council ofMünster from 2004 to 2013. From 2004 to 2012 she was Deputy Chair of the CDU faction in the Münster Council, from 2008 to 2013 planning spokeswoman for the CDU Council faction.[2]
In the2013 elections, Benning ran for the direct mandate in the constituency ofMünster, which she won with 38.8% of the first votes. In the Bundestag, she was a member of the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment and a deputy member of the Committee on the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety.
On the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment, she served as her parliamentary group’srapporteur onSTEM education and the Deutschlandstipendium scholarship scheme. She was also a member of the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Sustainable Development.
In addition to her committee assignments, Benning was a deputy member of the German delegation to theParliamentary Assembly of theCouncil of Europe (PACE) from 2014 to 2021.[2] In this capacity, she served on the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development (from 2014); the Sub-Committee on Media and Information Society (from 2016); and the Sub-Committee on theEurope Prize (from 2018). In 2019, she was the Assembly’s rapporteur on sustainableurban development.[3]
Benning was also a member of the German-French Parliamentary Friendship Group and the non-partisanEuropa-Union Deutschland, which is committed to a federal Europe and the European unification process.[4]
Within theCDU/CSU parliamentary group, Benning belonged to the Münsterland Circle (Münsterlandrunde) which brings together all parliamentarians from the eponymous region inWestphalia; it also includesAnja Karliczek andJens Spahn, among others.
In September 2020, Benning announced that she would not stand in the2021 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.[5]
In June 2017, Benning voted against her parliamentary group’s majority and in favor of Germany’s introduction ofsame-sex marriage.[7]
Ahead of the Christian Democrats’leadership election in 2018, Benning publicly endorsedAnnegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to succeed Angela Merkel as the party’s chair.[8] In 2019, she joined 14 members of her parliamentary group who, in an open letter, called for the party to rally around Merkel and Kramp-Karrenbauer amid criticism voiced by conservativesFriedrich Merz andRoland Koch.[9]
Benning was married and had two daughters and two sons. From 1990 until 1993, the family lived in Paris. In 2008, she was treated for cancer.[10]
In her free time, Benning was abeekeeper.[11]
