He had been drumming since he was twelve - and with the Puhdys for almost four decades.
In the successful band with roots in the GDR, Klaus Scharfschwerdt was the youngest.
He was voted the best drummer in the GDR several times.
When the Puhdys broke up in 2016, he was 62 years old.
After a short stage break, the drummer then founded a new band.
Scharfschwert died of cancer in Berlin at the age of 68.
Scharfschwerdt died in a clinic last Friday "after a long battle with lung cancer," confirmed Daniela Wintoch, the manager of his band Scharfschwerdts Neuland, citing those closest to her.
His family was with him and ask for your understanding in wanting to mourn in silence.
The burial should only take place in the immediate family circle.
The family had previously announced the death via a Facebook post.
"Deep pain fills us, we are without words," it says.
Scharfschwerdt lost his battle with cancer.
“He was always strong and full of hope.
We shared this hope and were firmly convinced: He can do it!
Unfortunately, it wasn't to be that way."
Klaus Scharfschwertt was a trained carpenter
Like his Puhdys colleagues, Scharfschwerdt, who was born in East Berlin on February 27, 1954, initially completed an education that had nothing to do with music.
For him it was an apprenticeship as a carpenter.
Then he studied music.
His uncle was a guitarist in the Sputniks, a GDR guitar band.
At a concert, the young Klaus Scharfschwerdt was allowed to stand behind the drummer - and was enthusiastic about his job, as he later reported.
He gained his first stage experiences with the cover band Vulcan and Prinzip.
In 1979, Scharfschwerdt then began as a successor to Gunther Wosylus as a drummer with the Puhdys.
He later told the online magazine "Deutsche Mugge" about his impression of the band at the time: "I only knew them from the radio and if I'm to be honest, it wasn't my thing at all.
My thing was a lot more Alex Harvey, Alice Cooper and whatever they were called.
The Puhdys were a completely different construction site and I didn’t really like what I knew from the radio.”
The Puhdys were still successful after the fall of the Wall
In the GDR, the Puhdys (“Alt wie ein Baum”, “Rockerrente”), founded in 1969, were voted the most popular rock group twelve times.
Even after the fall of the Wall, the quintet remained successful and - unlike most other bands from East Germany - filled large halls.
The drummer Scharfschwertt gave his voice to two Puhdys titles: "Seasons" and "TV Show".
In 2016, the band broke up after disputes.
Two years later her drummer founded a new band: Scharfschwerdts Neuland.
He was bored at home, he said in the 2018 "Deutsche Mugge" interview.
"You just sit there, just feeding koi isn't enough and just going on vacation isn't enough either." He teamed up with a guitarist, a violinist and a cellist.
Klaus Scharfscherdt was on stage with new titles
In 2019 they released the album "Made in Europe".
"Three string virtuosos and a drummer present rock music that is second to none," is how the band described themselves on the Internet.
After the Puhdys, drummer Scharfschwertt “simply wants to go harder and implement his musical ideas in a completely new guise”.
The singer at Schwarfschwerdts Neuland was a veteran of GDR rock music: Hans Wintoch aka "Hans the violin".
While other ex-Puhdys members kept their songs alive even after the end of the band, the drummer went a different way: his new band was on stage with completely new titles.
A serious illness threw Scharfschwerdt off track in 2019.
He had a tumor in his lungs, he reported in an interview with the magazine "Superillu".
"But it's gone now, completely, and I'm fine." He received the diagnosis after an inguinal hernia operation.
Then he canceled a trip and started chemotherapy.
Scharfschwertt then continued: "Complete attack.
Fire-free.
There are only two options.
And right from the start there was only one thing for me: I want to live, I will fight and I can do it.”