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Benda was born in Berlin, the son of an engineer. After completing his schooling, he served in the Kriegsmarine from 1943 to 1945. After World War II, he pursued law studies at the Humboldt University of Berlin in East Berlin. However, in 1948, he moved to the University of Wisconsin and later to the Free University of Berlin in West Berlin. In 1956, he began working as a lawyer in Berlin.
Benda became a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in 1946. He played a role in founding the Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit (KgU) ("Combat Group against Inhumanity") in 1948, an anti-communist organization that operated in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The KgU received financial support from various Western intelligence agencies and the West German government. He served as a member of the Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin, the parliament of Berlin, from 1954 to 1957. In 1957, he was elected to the Bundestag, the West German parliament.[1] In 1965, Benda played a role in bringing significant changes to West Germany's statutes of limitations for murder, allowing charges of murder against former National Socialists. He held the position of Secretary of State in the German interior ministry from 1967 and became Minister of the Interior in 1968.
In 1969, Benda was appointed as a judge to the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. He became the president of the court from 1971 to 1983. Starting in 1984, Benda held the position of a professor of law at the University of Freiburg.
