Maxi Herber (8 October 1920 – 20 October 2006) was a German

figure skater Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are me ...

who competed in

pair skating Pair skating is a figure skating discipline defined by the International Skating Union (ISU) as "the skating of two persons in unison who perform their movements in such harmony with each other as to give the impression of genuine Pair Skating a ...

and

single skating Single skating is a discipline of figure skating in which male and female skaters compete individually. Men's singles and women's singles are governed by the International Skating Union (ISU). Figure skating is the oldest winter sport contested ...

. She is the youngest figure skating Olympic champion (at the age of 15 years and 128 days) when she won gold in pair skating together with

Ernst Baier Ernst Baier (27 September 1905 in Zittau, Saxony, Germany – 8 July 2001 in Garmisch, Bavaria, Germany) was a German figure skater who competed in pair skating and single skating. He became Olympic pair champion in 1936 together with Ma ...

at the

1936 Winter Olympics The 1936 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IV Olympic Winter Games (german: IV. Olympische Winterspiele) and commonly known as Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936 ( bar, Garmasch-Partakurch 1936), were a winter multi-sport event held from 6 to 16 ...

. Born in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

, Herber was also an accomplished single skater, winning the German nationals three times, from 1933 to 1935. She skated for the Münchner EV (Munich EV) club. Herber and Baier married after their skating career ended in 1940. They had 3 children. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

they skated in ice shows. Later the couple owned a business. In 1964 they were divorced. Supported by the "Deutsche Sporthilfe" (German Sport help organisation) she moved to

Oberau Oberau is a municipality in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Bavaria, Germany. Geography Location Oberau is located at the Loisach in the so-called "Zugspitzland". The distance between the village center and Garmisch-Partenkirchen ...

near

Garmisch-Partenkirchen Garmisch-Partenkirchen (; Bavarian: ''Garmasch-Partakurch''), nicknamed Ga-Pa, is an Alpine ski town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the seat of government of the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (abbreviated ''GAP''), in the Ob ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

. Some years later Herber and Baier remarried, but were divorced again. Herber suffered from

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms beco ...

. In 2000, she moved to the Lenzheim retirement home in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Soon afterwards she had an exhibition of her

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

paintings there. She died at age 86 in

Results

(ladies singles) (pairs with

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Herber, Maxi 1920 births 2006 deaths German female pair skaters German female single skaters Figure skaters at the 1936 Winter Olympics Olympic figure skaters of Germany Olympic gold medalists for Germany Deaths from Parkinson's disease Neurological disease deaths in Germany Olympic medalists in figure skating World Figure Skating Championships medalists European Figure Skating Championships medalists Medalists at the 1936 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from Munich 20th-century German women 21st-century German women