It was, and is, a group of aeronautical students who design and construct aircraft as part of their studies and with the help and encouragement of their University.
[1] The fuselage of the Darmstadt was a plywood skinned, oval cross sectioned semi-monocoque, slightly tapered and more rounded towards the tail.
The D-19 used a more symmetric Joukowsky profile in place of the strongly cambered Göttingen 535, so decreasing the pitching moment; over the outer panels the thickness/chord ratio reduced continuously from 15% to 8.
In early 1928 it went to the United States where Peter Hesselbach flew it over the dunes of Cape Cod, one flight lasting four hours.
The flights attracted much publicity and caught the attention of the young Schweizer brothers who later became important glider designers.
The Darmstadt was damaged in a collision with a flagpole at the Cape, then was sold and rebuilt with improvements to the cockpit including its enclosure under smooth glazing which merged into the upper pylon line.