Sybille Benning (8 January 1961 – 29 July 2022) was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). In the

2013 federal election The 2013 Australian federal election to elect the members of the 44th Parliament of Australia took place on Saturday, 7 September 2013. The centre-right Liberal/National Coalition opposition led by Opposition leader Tony Abbott of the Liberal ...

she was elected to the German

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

, representing the city of

Münster Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...

Early life and career

Benning was born in

, where she graduated from the Marienschule episcopal high school. Benning completed an apprenticeship in gardening and landscaping and then studied landscape conservation at the Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Science. Afterwards she graduated as a geographer (landscape ecology) from Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. Benning worked freelance as a landscape designer.Sybille Benning, CDU/CSU
Bundestag.de

Political career

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 of

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. In the 2013 elections, Benning ran for the direct mandate in the constituency of

, 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’s

rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Eur ...

STEM education Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word responsib ...

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 the Parliamentary Assembly of the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

(PACE) from 2014 to 2021. 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 the Europe Prize (from 2018). In 2019, she was the Assembly’s rapporteur on sustainable

urban development Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of peop ...

. Benning was also a member of the German-French Parliamentary Friendship Group and the non-partisan Europa-Union Deutschland, which is committed to a federal Europe and the European unification process. Within the

CDU/CSU CDU/CSU, unofficially the Union parties ( ) or the Union, is a centre-right Christian democratic and conservative political alliance of two political parties in Germany: the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Social U ...

parliamentary group, Benning belonged to the Münsterland Circle (''Münsterlandrunde'') which brings together all parliamentarians from the eponymous region in

Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...

; it also includes Anja Karliczek and

Jens Spahn Jens Georg Spahn (born 16 May 1980) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been a member of the lower house of the federal parliament, the Bundestag (, MdB), for Steinfurt I – Borken I since 2002. Since 2025, he ...

, among others. In September 2020, Benning announced that she would not stand in the 2021 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.

Other activities

Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine The Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine was founded on 1 April 2001 in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is part of the Max Planck Society. The current managing director is Prof. Sara Wickström. History The Institute ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees *

Münster Zoo The Allwetterzoo Münster is a Zoo in Münster (Westfalen), Münster in Westfalen, Germany. The Zoo origins in the 1875 founded, and 1973 closed ''Zoologische Garten zu Münster'', replaced by the 1974 founded Allwetterzoo Münster, which was buil ...

, Substitute Member of the Supervisory Board *

German Life Saving Association The German Life Saving Association ( or DLRG) is a relief organization for life saving in Germany. The DLRG is the largest voluntary lifesaving organization in the world. With around 560,000 members, organised in approximately 2,100 local g ...

(DLRG), Member

Political positions

In June 2017, Benning voted against her parliamentary group’s majority and in favor of Germany’s introduction of

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

. Ahead of the Christian Democrats’

leadership election A leadership election is a political contest held in various countries by which the members of a political party determine who will be the leader of their party. Generally, any political party can determine its own rules governing how and when a ...

in 2018, Benning publicly endorsed

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (; Kramp; born 9 August 1962), sometimes referred to by her initials of AKK, is a retired German politician who served as Federal Ministry of Defence (Germany), Minister of Defence from 2019 to 2021 and as Leader of th ...

to succeed Angela Merkel as the party’s chair. 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 conservatives

Friedrich Merz Joachim-Friedrich Martin Josef Merz (; ; born 11November 1955) is a German politician serving as Chancellor of Germany since 6 May 2025. He has also served as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since January 2022, leading the CDU/CSU ...

and

Roland Koch Roland Koch (born 24 March 1958) is a German jurist and former conservative politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He was the 7th Minister President of Hesse from 7 April 1999, immediately becoming the 53rd President of the Bund ...

Personal life

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. In her free time, Benning was a

beekeeper A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees, a profession known as beekeeping. The term beekeeper refers to a person who keeps honey bees in beehives, boxes, or other receptacles. The beekeeper does not control the creatures. The beekeeper ow ...

.Klaus Baumeister (15 September 2017)
Bundestagskandidaten und ihr Lieblingsfoto: Sybille Benning liebt die Imkerei
''Westfälische Nachrichten''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benning, Sybille 1961 births 2022 deaths Members of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia Female members of the Bundestag Politicians from Münster University of Münster alumni Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag 2013–2017 Members of the Bundestag for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany Place of death missing 21st-century German women politicians