Throughout the 1930s, Scurla worked for the German Office of University Exchanges, which in 1934 became the Ministry of Education of the Reich.
In the 1930s and 1940s, he taught, including in public policy, and lived in Turkey in 1937 and 1939 to extend the reach of German universities.
In 1948, he lived in the Soviet zone, and became a member of the National Democratic Party (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands, NDPD) which "recycled" former Nazis.
He published biographies and travel books with great success.
A specialist in dissimulation, Scurla often used pseudonyms, and while well known as a former Nazi, he lived in the Soviet occupied zone (1945–1949) of the East Germany (1949–1990) without problems.