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. During that time, she soon acquired a reputation for being independent minded, particularly on the issue of
abortion. Most notably, Nolte voted against one liberalization bill supported by a majority of her own party. From 1992 to 1994 she was a member of Thuringia CDU. On 18 November 1994 Nolte became the
Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. She was 28 years old, making her the youngest German cabinet minister in German history. She was also one of only three women in the Cabinet and one of only two people from eastern Germany in Chancellor
Helmut Kohl's 16-member Cabinet; the other was
Environment Minister Angela Merkel. On 30 November 1994 she was named the
Council of the European Union’s President – again the youngest ever. In 1998 she left the German cabinet when her party joined the opposition. From 1996 to 2000 Nolte was a member of the CDU presiding council in Germany and from January 1999 to October 2002 she was commissioner of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group for disabled people. From 2002 to 2005, Nolte was vice chairman for
United Nations contacts in the German parliament. In 2005 she failed to win a direct seat in the Bundestag representing the Gotha Ilm county electoral district. Under Germany's electoral law she was eligible to return to the German Federal Parliament via the state list in May 2008, but she declined. ==Later career==