From December 2011 Böhning served as Head of the Senate Chancellery of the Federal State of Berlin, first under Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit (2011-2014) and later under Michael Müller (2014-2018). In the negotiations to form a "Grand Coalition" of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) and the SPD following the 2013 German elections, he was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on digital policy, led by Dorothee Bär and Brigitte Zypries.