Bernd Hilger was one of the best German skeleton pilots in the late 1980s. He was one of the early participants in the Skeleton World Cup . He took part in the 1990 Skeleton World Championships in Königssee and was 15th in the national championship in 1988 behind Manfred Markl and Richard Baumann , and in 1989 third behind Markl and Jochen Reiter . At the Bavarian Championships in 1989 Hilger came second behind Markl.