Claudia Nolte

Claudia Crawford (né Wiesemüller, formerly and still commonly known as Claudia Nolte; born 7 February 1966) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who became the youngest cabinet minister in German history whilst in office from 1994–98 and was Federal Minister for family, seniors, women and youth affairs and, by virtue of this office, presided over the European Union Council of Ministers. Nolte is a Catholic and is active in the Catholic community. She is married to investigative journalist David Crawford of CORRECT!V. With her marriage in July 2008, she took the name of her husband. Claudia Wiesemüller was born in 1966 in Rostock, a city that was in East Germany. In her teenage years she was refused admission to a college preparatory school due to her participation in Catholic church youth activities. East German school officials required her to learn a trade before she could enroll in college, so whilst attending a technical secondary school in Rostock, she took vocational training in marine electronics from 1982 to 1984. In 1985, Nolte studied automation and cybernetic engineering at the Technical University of Ilmenau, where she graduatated with a Diplom degree in 1990. In October 1989 she was active in the opposition movement New Forum within the German Democratic Republic and joined the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in February 1990. After completing her studies at the Technical University of Ilmenau, she accepted a position as a research assistant there but left this job within weeks owing to her election to the first freely elected East German parliament. From March to October 1990, Nolte was a member of the People's Chamber of the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany. After German unification on 3 October 1990 she led the Christian Democratic Party list in Thuringia State in the first all-German elections for the Bundestag in December 1990. She served from 1991 to 1994 as her parliamentary group’s spokeswoman on women's policy.