[1] Ehrenberg was born in Kollnischken, East Prussia (today Kolniszki, Gmina Gołdap, Poland) and visited school (Staatliche Kantschule) in Goldap until 1943, when he was conscripted to the Wehrmacht.

After his release as Prisoner of war in 1947 he passed his Abitur and studied national economy in Wilhelmshaven and at the University of Göttingen, where he took his doctorate in 1958.

[1] Ehrenberg joined the Public Services, Transport and Traffic Union (ÖTV) in 1949 and the Social Democratic Party of Germany, or SPD, in 1955.

In 1964 he became the head of the national economy branch at the chairman of IG Bau-Steine-Erden-Union and in 1968 he started to work at the Federal Ministry of economics.

In 1969 he switched to the German Chancellery and was a Secretary of State at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (Germany) in 1971–72 and its Minister in 1976–82.