The Wasserkuppe weather station has recorded the following extreme values:[1] Students from the Darmstadt University of Technology, then known as Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, began flying gliders from the Wasserkuppe as early as 1911, but interest in gliding in Germany increased greatly after 1918 when the Treaty of Versailles restricted the production or use of powered aircraft in the nation.

From 1920 onwards, annual gliding competitions were held, leading to records being set and broken for height, distance and duration of unpowered flight.

In 1922 Arthur Martens [de] became the first glider pilot to use an updraft rising along a mountain slope to stay aloft for a lengthy period.

The first competition was organised by Oskar Ursinus,[5]: 58  who also built the first clubhouse on the Wasserkuppe in 1924 to replace the shipping containers that enthusiasts were using as accommodation up to that point.

This started the Rhön-Rossitten Gesellschaft and as a result, the Wasserkuppe now had a gliding school, workshops for building gliders and a funded research facility.

Virtually every German aeronautical engineer and test pilot of note during the 1920s and 1930s spent time building, testing, and flying aircraft at the Wasserkuppe, including the Günter brothers, Wolf Hirth, the Horten brothers, Robert Kronfeld, Hans Jacobs, Heini Dittmar, Alexander Lippisch, Willy Messerschmitt, Hanna Reitsch, Peter Riedel, and Alexander Schleicher.

The inscription on the memorial is Lilienthal's famous last words: "Opfer müssen gebracht werden" roughly meaning: "Sacrifices must be made."

In 1970, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first competition, the Deutsches Segelflugmuseum (German Sailplane Museum) was opened on the plateau, with Neil Armstrong a guest of honour at the ceremony.