Because the Treaty of Versailles forbade any form of powered flight in Germany, many young pilots and aircraft designers turned to gliding as a sport.
Under Oskar Ursinus[1]: 58 and Theodore von Kármán, hobbyists and serious university study groups began building gliders.
While many of the entering designs were no more than kites and many of the 'flights' were no more than stumbles ending in a crash, Kármán and his team from the RWTH Aachen with their glider Schwarzer Teufel (Black Devil) [2] pioneered the bungee-launching method and regularly managed flights of over a minute followed by a crash-free landing.
Simultaneously another gliding group formed at the Rossitten sand dunes at the Curonian Spit in East Prussia.
One big organization was suggested to coordinate the activities at the Rhön and the Rossitten dunes, and every other gliding club that might be founded.