Dennis Thering

Dennis Thering graduated from the Wirtschaftsgymnasium City Nord, a secondary school in Hamburg with a focus on economics, in 2003. After graduating, he spent one year doing community service at the Hospital zum Heiligen Geist ("Holy Spirit Hospital") in the Poppenbüttel quarter of Hamburg. Thering then completed an apprenticeship as a bank clerk at the German public savings bank Hamburger Sparkasse in 2006, where he then worked for four years. In 2010, he went back to school to study political science - he eventually earned his BA degree at the University of Hamburg in 2013. From January 2014 to March 2020, Thering was employed as an executive assistant at the care services provider Pflegen & Wohnen Hamburg GmbH.{{Cite web |title=Dennis Thering |url=https://www.koerber-stiftung.de/veranstaltungsuebersicht/gaeste-verzeichnis/veranstaltungen-zu-einem-gast |access-date=2022-03-21 |website=Körber-Stiftung |language=de-DE}}

Dennis Thering has been a member of the CDU since 2001. He acts both as chairman of the CDU in Alstertal{{Cite web |title=Ortsvorstand Ortsverband Alstertal – CDU-Kreisverband Wandsbek |url=https://www.cdu-kvwandsbek.de/ortsvorstand-ortverband-alstertal/ |access-date=2022-03-17 |language=de-DE}} and as district chairman of the CDU Wandsbek.{{Cite web |title=Kreisvorstand – CDU-Kreisverband Wandsbek |url=https://www.cdu-kvwandsbek.de/kreisvorstand/ |access-date=2022-03-21 |language=de-DE}} Between 2004 and 2008, he was a member of the local committee Alstertal where he was appointed deputy group leader. From 2008 to 2011, Thering was a directly elected member of the Alstertal-Walddoerfer constituency for the Wandsbek district assembly.{{Cite web |title=Dennis Thering {{!}} CDU CSU Fraktionsvorsitzendenkonferenz |url=https://cducsufvk.de/mitglieder/dennis-thering/ |access-date=2022-03-24 |language=de-DE}} During this time, he was the spokesperson for the Alstertal region as well as the representative of the sports department of the CDU Wandsbek parliamentary group.

Thering has been both a member of the Hamburg Parliament and a member of the state board of the CDU Hamburg since 2011. In the 2015 state elections, Thering was reelected into the state parliament via a direct mandate in the Alstertal-Walddörfer constituency. He was deputy chairman of the CDU parliamentary group until spring of 2020: At its constituent parliamentary group meeting on March 18, 2020, the CDU parliamentary group unanimously elected Thering as their new chairman.

In the general election on February 23, 2020,{{Cite web |title=Informationen zur Wahl der 22. Hamburgischen Bürgerschaft am 23. Februar 2020 - Statistikamt Nord |url=https://www.statistik-nord.de/wahlen/wahlen-in-hamburg/buergerschaftswahlen/2020 |access-date=2022-03-18 |website=www.statistik-nord.de}} Thering was once again appointed as the top candidate of the CDU Hamburg in the Alstertal-Walddörfer constituency. On February 23, 2020, he - for the third time - was reelected as a member of the Hamburg Parliament{{Cite web |title=Bürgerschaftswahl in Hamburg |url=https://www.hamburg.de/buergerschaftswahl/ |access-date=2022-03-18 |website=hamburg.de |language=de}}

In April 2023, the previous chairman of the CDU Hamburg Christoph Ploß stepped down and handed over the chairmanship to Thering, who was elected by the party members with 185 out of 197 votes. Eight delegates voted against him, four abstained.{{Cite web |last=NDR |title=Hamburger CDU wählt Thering zum neuen Landesvorsitzenden |url=https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/hamburg/Hamburger-CDU-waehlt-Thering-zum-neuen-Landesvorsitzenden,cduhamburg118.html |access-date=2023-04-28 |website=www.ndr.de |language=de}}

Thering focuses on transport policy, internal security and economic policy. The CDU does not want to "exclude" any road users, stands firmly by the Port of Hamburg and wants to contribute more to the safety of Hamburg's citizens, he stated. Improving health care is also important to him, Thering said.

He, alongside the CDU Hamburg, supported the initiative "Put an end to gender language in administration and education" in February 2023.{{Cite web |last=Josefowicz |first=Alexander |date=2023-02-17 |title=Gendersprache – die CDU und die Gender-Gegner in Hamburg: Distanz? Welche Distanz? |url=https://www.abendblatt.de/hamburg/article237677559/gendersprache-die-cdu-hamburg-und-die-gender-gegner-distanz-welche-distanz-sabine-mertens.html |access-date=2023-04-28 |website=www.abendblatt.de |language=de-DE}}

Thering distances himself from the far right, stating in February 2023: "The AfD is an openly racist party, in part also anti-Semitic, so we clearly distance ourselves."{{cite web | url=https://www.abendblatt.de/hamburg/article237683093/gendersprache-cdu-hamburg-sammelt-unterschriften-fuer-anti-gender-initiative-sabine-mertens.html | title=Gendersprache: CDU Hamburg sammelt Unterschriften für Anti-Gender-Initiative | date=18 February 2023 }}

On 24 February 2023, Thering announced his candidacy to run as a candidate to challenge Hamburg's First Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD) in the 2025 election for the 23rd Hamburg Parliament, stating in the Hamburger Abendblatt Summer Interview of 2022: "Government responsibility does not mean that we then automatically provide the next mayor."{{cite web | url=https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/hamburg/Thering-will-Hamburger-Buergermeister-werden,thering126.html | title=Thering will Hamburger Bürgermeister werden }}{{Cite web |last=Meyer |first=Jens Meyer-Wellmann und Peter Ulrich |date=2023-02-25 |title=Dennis Thering will Hamburger Bürgermeister werden |url=https://www.abendblatt.de/hamburg/kommunales/article237751215/hamburg-buergerschaft-wahl-2025-dennis-thering-buergermeister-spitzenkandidat-cdu-herausforderer-tschentscher.html |access-date=2023-04-28 |website=www.abendblatt.de |language=de-DE}} Thering's mayoral candidacy is viewed controversially.{{Cite web |last=Carini |first=Marco |last2=dpa |last3=Quandt |first3=Florian |last4=400407802-scaled |date=2023-03-25 |title=Hamburg-CDU: Kann Dennis Thering auch Wahlkampf? (M+) |url=https://www.mopo.de/hamburg/politik/kann-dennis-thering-auch-wahlkampf/ |access-date=2024-09-12 |website=MOPO |language=de-DE}} Party researcher Elmar Wiesendahl commented in an interview on 25 June 2022 that ‘the plan of parliamentary group leader Dennis Thering to lead the party into the election is a subscription to defeat’ and pleaded for "a prominent newcomer, like Walther Leisler Kiep once did" in order to "connect with Hamburg's business circles".{{Cite web |last=Dey |first=Andreas |date=2022-06-25 |title=Politik: Warum Hamburgs Grüne so angesagt sind und die CDU extrem verfällt |url=https://www.abendblatt.de/hamburg/kommunales/article235714791/politikwissenschaftler-elmar-wiesendahl-buergerschaft-hamburg-cdu-interview.html |access-date=2024-09-12 |website=www.abendblatt.de |language=de}}

In July 2024, NDR saw Thering as the "new strong man in the CDU. Young, adaptable, rhetorically fit, but also a bit conservative". On 20 August 2024, Thering was unanimously nominated by the CDU state executive as his party's top candidate for the upcoming 2025 parliamentary elections, followed in second place on the state list by Anna-Elisabeth von Treuenfels-Frowein, the former Hamburg frontwoman of the FDP, who switched to the Hamburg CDU in July 2024.{{Cite web |last=NDR |title=Hamburger CDU legt vorläufige Liste für Bürgerschaftswahl vor |url=https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/hamburg/Hamburger-CDU-legt-vorlaeufige-Liste-fuer-Buergerschaftswahl-vor,cdu1894.html |access-date=2024-09-12 |website=www.ndr.de |language=de}}{{Cite web |last=Meyer |first=Peter Ulrich |date=2024-08-20 |title=CDU Hamburg: Überraschend viele Frauen für die Bürgerschaftswahl |url=https://www.abendblatt.de/hamburg/politik/article407060607/cdu-beschliesst-liste-zur-wahl-ueberraschend-viele-frauen.html |access-date=2024-09-12 |website=www.abendblatt.de |language=de}} On 7 September 2024, Thering was placed first on the state list for the 2025 Hamburg elections by the CDU state representatives' meeting with just under 92 percent of the vote.{{Cite web |last=Redaktion |first=MOPO |last2=Scholz |first2=picture alliance/dpa/Markus |last3=481651414-scaled |date=2024-09-07 |title=Er führt CDU als Spitzenkandidat in Bürgerschaftswahl |url=https://www.mopo.de/hamburg/politik/thering-fuehrt-cdu-als-spitzenkandidat-in-buergerschaftswahl/ |access-date=2024-09-12 |website=MOPO |language=de-DE}}

Thering is a member of the following clubs and associations:

• Heimatverein Hamburg-Hummelsbüttel (Hamburg-Hummelsbüttel Homeland Society)
• Bürgerverein Sasel-Poppenbüttel von 1955 (Sasel-Poppenbüttel Citizens' Association of 1955)
• Förderverein der Freiwilligen Feuerwehr Hummelsbüttel (Hummelsbüttel Volunteer Fire Brigade Support Association)
• Duvenstedter Sportverein von 1969 (Duvenstedter Sports Club of 1969)
• Bürgerverein Duvenstedt/Wohldorf-Ohlstedt (Citizens' Association Duvenstedt/Wohldorf-Ohlstedt)
• Verein Heimatbund Hamburg-Lemsahl-Mellingstedt (Homeland Association Hamburg-Lemsahl-Mellingstedt)
• Vereinigung Duvenstedt (seit 1961) (Duvenstedt Association (since 1961))
• Freundeskreis des Hospital zum Heiligen Geist (Friends of the Holy Spirit Hospital)
• Freundeskreis von „Hände für Kinder“ (Circle of Friends of "Hands for Children")
• Stiftungsrat der Curator-Stiftung für das Hospital zum Heiligen Geist in Poppenbüttel (Board of Trustees of the Curator Foundation for the Hospital zum Heiligen Geist in Poppenbüttel)

{{commons category}}

• [https://cduhh.de/dennis-thering/ Dennis Thering • CDU-Bürgerschaftsfraktion Hamburg]
• [https://www.cdu-hamburg.de/fileadmin/content/Konzepte/Lebenslauf%20Dennis%20Thering.pdf German Resume Dennis Thering]
• [http://www.dennis-thering.de Offizielle Website von Dennis Thering]
• [http://www.cdu-alstertal.de/index.php?ka=1&ska=profil&pid=2 Dennis Thering with the CDU Alstertal]
• [https://www.abgeordnetenwatch.de/profile/dennis-thering Abgeordnetenwatch]
• [https://cduhh.de/podcast/ Podcast]

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Category:Christian Democratic Union of Germany politicians

Category:21st-century German politicians

Category:1984 births

Category:Living people

Category:University of Hamburg alumni

Category:Members of the Hamburg Parliament