After completing his secondary education, he studied for a year at the military academy in Löbau, but was expelled in 1975, after which he was forced to seek work in the coal mining area of the Spreetal (in today's Saxony).

In 1977 he applied to join the ruling party, the SED, but was asked to leave the following year (after uttering contrary opinions), although this was reduced to a "strong rebuke" after he appealed.

His first LP Männer, Frauen und Maschinen (Men, Women, and Machines) appeared in 1988, but in contrast to his solo acoustic performances it was a rock record album with a backing band, with uptempo numbers like "Halte durch" ("Hang in there!").

After the Fall of the Wall, Gundermann ran unsuccessfully for a parliamentary seat in the Volkskammer in the March 1990 elections as a candidate for the leftist alliance Aktionsbündnis Vereinigte Linke.

[1] However, he was a workaholic; besides a full recording and performing schedule, Gundermann continued to work operating a rotary excavator, digging up seams of brown coal.