Hermann Erler was a German composer and publisher. He founded the music publishing house 'Ries & Erler' with the violinist and composer Franz Ries. As a composer, he published under the pseudonym Ernst Scherz works such as the tale about the folk song "If a bird flew" in the style of the masters as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Strauss, Verdi, Weber and Wagner and The Carnival of Venice, parodic variations in style of the composer Handel, Haydn, Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, Gounod, Strauss, Richard Wagner.