The result was the highlight of a great day for the Germans at the canoeing regatta as they took two golds and two silvers in six races. Norway and Hungary were the other two countries to star.
Norway's Eirik Veraas Larsen won gold and bronze just over an hour apart in the K1 and K2 1,000 and the Hungarian men's K4 1,000 retained their Olympic title to the delight of their boisterous, flag-waving fans.
The crew jumped into the lake to celebrate.But the talk of the first finals day was the German crew of Fischer, Maike Nollen, Katrin Wagner and Carolin Leonhardt who finished less than a metre ahead of Hungary.
Fischer, who in the K2 500 on Saturday will bid to join record-holding ex-Soviet gymnast Larysa Latynina as the only woman to win nine Summer Olympic golds, punched her fists in delight on crossing the line. She is the only woman to have won Olympic medals 24 years apart.
"You never know if it is going to be the last medal so it has a higher value," she said. "The eighth gold medal has been extremely motivating. I still cannot believe I've got it."
The German won her first Olympic gold as an 18-year-old in Moscow in 1980 and has not ruled out competing in Beijing in 2008.
DIFFERENT STORY: It was a different story for Germany in the men's C1 1,000, where Spain's David Cal stunned the defending Olympic champion Andreas Dittmer to win by half a second. Dittmer was looking for his third gold after winning the C2 in Atlanta and the C1 in Sydney.
"I gave it my all and have seldom felt so exhausted," he said.
In the first race of the day, Norway's Larsen came from behind to win the K1 1,000 and an hour later lined up with Nils Olav Fjeldheim to take bronze in the K2.
He told Reuters he did not know how much the first race affected the second. "I'm happy to get a medal actually but the Swedes were going very fast and I don't think we would have beaten the Swedes even if I hadn't done K1."
World champions Sweden took the K2 gold by half a length over the Olympic champions Italy.