[1] Lauck was born into a working-class family a small town in a wine-producing region in central Germany, some 63 km (40 miles) to the west of Leipzig.
[1] As a party member Lauck continued to work in the country's strategically and industrially important steel production sector.
[1] In 1975/76 Lauck was a student at the Party Central Committee's "Karl Marx" Academy, which adumbrated a more openly political career for him.
A move into national government came in July 1986 when Hans-Joachim Lauck was appointed Minister for Heavy Plant and Machinery Construction[1][3] in succession to Rolf Kersten.
He was not one of those who had participated in the election, and during the run up to reunification the government no longer employed fifteen junior ministers with responsibility for individual industry sectors: however, Launck continued to work in the Economics Ministry as a deputy departmental director under the government of Lothar de Maizière, which continued in office till the formal reunification of Germany in October 1990.