The Akademische Fliegeruppe Darmstadt, founded in 1921, was the first of several Akafliegs associated with German universities intended to give student teams experience of aircraft design.

In 1928-9 Paul Laubenthal, then at the Akaflieg, designed a Darmstadt sailplane, built by Klemm Leichtflugzeugbau, for the Würtenburger gliding club.

The cockpit was just ahead of the wing under a removable, largely ply cover; the only transparencies were the windscreen and a small rectangular roof window, though there were open circular portholes on either side.

Musterle had a landing skid under the forward fuselage, reaching back almost to the wing trailing edge, and a spring type tailskid.

[1] In 1930 Hirth took Musterle to the US National Championships held at Harris Hill, New York equipped with a variometer, an instrument unknown outside Germany and previously only used by Robert Kronfeld in the RRG Professor two years earlier.

The following spring, on 10 March 1931, he flew over New York using ridge lift from the Hudson River until signalled to come down by police because he was causing a traffic hazard.