Agnes Hürland-Büning

Agnes Hürland-Büning (born Agnes Oleynik: 17 May 1926 – 9 March 2009) was a German politician with strong local roots. She was a member of the Bundestag (Germany's "national parliament") for nearly twenty years between 1972 and 1991. She chaired the local Recklinghausen CDU party between 1977 and 1983, and served between 1979 and 1983 as deputy party chair for the CDU regional party executive in Westfalen-Lippe. Between 1987 and 1991 she was a parliamentary secretary of state in the West German Defence Ministry.

It later emerged that she had become entangled, as an industry lobbyist, in the CDU donations scandal. The prosecutors' office in Düsseldorf launched an investigation against her in respect of allegations involving serious fraud, false statements and tax evasion, but by 2007 she was seriously ill and the case was suspended. It was dropped in 2008 on account of Hürland-Büning's "permanent incapacity to deal with matters" ("wegen dauernder Verhandlungsunfähigkeit der Angeklagten").

Biography Early years Agnes Oleynik was born into a Roman Catholic family in Holsterhausen, a small town on the western fringes of Dorsten (into which it was formally subsumed in 1943), a mid-sized mining and industrial town north of Essen, a short distance to the east of the Dutch frontier and Nijmegen. War broke out when she was 13 and troops were stationed at the school: teaching immediately became more "irregular" ("... sehr unregelmäßig"), especially after the children were sent to take part in combined classes at one of the two nearby protestant schools.

Sources are for the most part silent about her marriage, but by 1960, when she returned to the labour market, it was as Agnes Hürland, the mother of four or five children. She was employed, till 1968, as a secretary / senior support worker ("Chefassistentin") with an industrial business. She worked for two years for the national labour agency. After that there were two years as a rehabilitation counsellor. Hürland-Büning became a member of the Bundestag Committee for Labour and Social Affairs, in which she took a particular interest in to the needs of the disabled.

Directly after the 1987 election Chancellor Kohl made Hürland-Büning his secretary of state for defence. She had no great specialist knowledge of defence matters, but many felt that her human qualities more than compensated for a lack of technical expertise. Her grandmotherly manner, on display when she visited young recruits and junior officers, provided a reassuring picture. However, the name of Agnes Hürland-Büning hit the headlines towards the end of that year in connection with the emerging CDU donations scandal: It was reported that shortly after the conclusion of her consultancy agreement, her younger son Norbert had opened a real estate business on the edge of town, and that she had invested capital in the business, although the allegations implied by the much of press reporting remained resolutely imprecise. Investigations by the prosecutors' office were followed by the issuance of charges in December 2003. Her parliamentary colleagues were represented by a wreath that arrived from the Bundestag. Since then she has been commemorated each year by a further wreath, sent on All Saints' Day, and decorated with the black/red/gold sash of the CDU/CSU, on behalf of her Bundestag former party colleagues and their successors in Berlin.

Autobahn Exit 37½ Bundesautobahn 31 runs parallel with the Dutch frontier, linking Emden in the north with Bottrop to the south. The section passing to the west of Dorsten was completed and opened in 1989. Between Junctions 37 and 38 there is an unmarked junction, without signage and without a junction number. The unmarked junction was not included in the plans for the road, and only those with local knowledge are aware that it can be accessed by leaving or joining the Autobahn where maps and signs indicate a parking area ("Parkplatz Dorsten-Holsterhausen"). The limited access junction only permits traffic to join the Autobahn in a southerly direction, towards Bottrop (and, indirectly, Bonn) or to leave the Autobahn travelling north (from Bottrop and, indirectly, Bonn). Locally it is often identified as the "Hürland junction" ("Hürlandausfahrt") which is a reference to the persistent belief that the junction was added at the last minute, shortly before the new road section was opened, in order to facilitate the drive between Agnes Hürland-Büning's home, which was very near the junction, and her work at the Bundestag and the Defence Ministry (which till 1990 were located in Bonn). The rumour gained added traction after the name of the former secretary of state began to appear in press reports connecting her with the CDU donations scandal. Der Spiegel gave it national coverage in 2000 and repeated it in 2002.