Angelika Gramkow was born in Grevesmühlen, a small town a short distance to the west of Rostock and, at that time, a short distance to the east of the "internal" frontier that separated East Germany from the more economically dynamic Federal Republic of Germany ("West Germany"). Between 1965 and 1975 she attended the Polytechnic Secondary School (""zehnklassige Polytechnische Oberschule") in nearby Ludwigslust. Her higher education concluded successfully, involving by a period of vocational study at Schwerin focusing on the construction industry (residential). She rejected a career in the construction industry, however. Between 1981 and 1986 she attended university at the other end of the country, in Leipzig, emerging with an economics degree and a teaching qualification.