From Physicist to Politician

"Calculating speed constants of simple reactions using basic hydrocarbons as an example" -- it's questionable whether Angela Merkel can rely on her doctoral dissertation in her current line of work. The trained physicist joined politics relatively late: At 35, she began getting involved in the "Democratic Renewal" movement, which called for swift German unification and the introduction of a Western-style constitutional state in the former East Germany soon after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. In 1990, she joined the Christian Democratic Union and was elected deputy party leader one year later. In 1991, "Kohl's girl" also became federal minister for women and youth but still remained a little shy and introverted in public.