Gustav Schürger was a doctor who won 32 international caps as a water polo player. He was a member of the German silver medal-winning team, behind Hungary, at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He had previously been runner-up to Hungary at the 1934 European Championship, having first represented Germany at the 1927 Europeans.
He served as a military doctor during World War II but was heavily wounded by a bomb which left him blind. Nevertheless he worked in his own practice in Nuremberg using a medical assistant, Dr. med. Ernst Moslehner, until his son Walter took over the practice in 1966.