Ernst Scherzer

East German alpine skier Ernst Scherzer participated in the 1964 Innsbruck Winter Games. He finished 13th in the slalom event. He was also nominated for the 1960 Winter Olympics as a substitute, but did not start in any event. In East Germany he won 11 national titles.

In 1969, Scherzer retired when East German parliament decided not to fund alpine skiing anymore, and he then turned to coaching and waxing. In 1976 he returned to the Olympics as the waxing expert for the GDR ski jumping team, serving in that role again in 1980 and 1984.

From 1977 to 1989 Scherzer worked as a so-called “Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter” (Unofficial Employee) for the Ministry of National Security (Stasi). After reunification he claimed this to be “a big mistake in my life”. He was married to former luger and non-Olympian Heidi Schuffenhauer.