Karl Fritz Lauer (11 April 1938 – 5 June 2018) was a Romanian-German agricultural scientist in phytopathology and herbology.

He first worked as a scientist at the Botanical Institute of the University of Regensburg before taking over the management of the scientific field research for southern Germany for Rhône-Poulenc from 1983 to 1995.

From 1996 on he was a lecturer in Herbology at the Fachhochschule Weihenstephan and supervised Ph.D. students at Timișoara Agricultural University during their research and preparation of their dissertations, himself receiving an honorary doctorate.

Together with Păun Otiman he was an initiator of the re-opening in 2007 of the Vojteg Agricultural School, and served on its advisory board until his death.

Also with the University Rectors Alexandru Moisuc (2004–2012), Paul Pirsan (2012–2016) and Cosmin Alin Popescu (since February 2016), he maintained intense relationships to build international contacts.