Gertrud Hurler was born in Taberwiese, East Prussia, German Empire (now Taborzec, Poland) on 1 September 1889.
During her post-graduate training in pediatrics at Hauner Children's Hospital, she observed two infants that displayed symptoms of corneal clouding, dwarfing skeletal dysplasia, spinal misalignment, and mental retardation.
Previously known as gargoylism or lipochondrodystrophy, the disease was named after her, despite the initial report being given by her chief, Professor von Pfaundler, to the Munich Pediatric Society.
Hurler wrote up the case in German: Über einen Typ multipler Abartungen, vorwiegend am Skelettsystem that was published in the Zournal Kinderheilk in 1919.
That same year she started a private practice as a pediatrician in Neuhausen that lasted until her death in 1965.