Peter Hauk grew up in Rippberg in the Odenwald where he passed his Abitur (state school exams) in 1980 at the Karl-Ernst-Gymnasium in Amorbach.
Hauk was the Deputy Head of the Schoental Forestry Department (Jagst), then until 2001 Project Leader at the Forestry Experimental and Research Institute in Baden-Württemberg and from 2001 until 2005 Director of the Adelsheim Forestry office.