The radar was a development of FuMG 80 Freya and was operated during World War II for long range detection.

Wasserman was based on largely unchanged Freya electronics, but used an entirely new antenna array in order to improve range, height-finding and bearing precision.

The two most important versions are: The combination of the antennae in this way resulted in a concentration of the radiated energy to a smaller beam, thus resulting in a higher radiated power in the main direction (Effective Radiated Power = ERP) without increasing the transmitter power.

With the L-version the horizontal opening angle of the antenna array remained the same, but the vertical opening angle was reduced (so flatter radiation pattern).

With the S-version also the horizontal opening angle was reduced, resulting in a better bearing resolution.