The Der Dessauer, later Der alte Dessauer, was a German single-seat glider built in the early 1920s. It took part in all the Rhön gliding contests on the Wasserkuppe between 1923 and 1928, flew in the Alps, and made a long-duration flight along the German sea shore. Design and development Around 1923, Ludwig Hoffmann was a Junkers employee and co-founder of the Flugtechnische Verein Dessau (Flight Technical Association Dessau). He had already had experience in glider design at Akaflieg Darmstadt with the Akaflieg Darmstadt D-6 Geheimrat. The Der Dessauer was recognisable as a descendant of that glider. The Der Dessauer was a monoplane with a thick section, two-part, high wing, connected to the fuselage by a single, short, steep, tubular Dural lift strut from the upper fuselage longeron to the single wing spar on each side at about 15% of the span. These struts were unusual in incorporating rubber shock absorbers which allowed a compression of at landings, when the downward inertial forces were greatest. They were rigid under lifting loads. Forward of the spar the wing was plywood skinned around the leading edge, forming a torsion resistant D-box, and behind it the wing was fabric-covered with wire defining the trailing edge. A rectangular plan centre section filled about half the span; outboard, the leading edge was slightly swept, leading to straight, oblique wing tips. The trailing edges of these outer panels carried obliquely mounted differential ailerons which broadened to the tips. The Der Dessauers fuselage was wood-framed and skinned with plywood. There were no internal cross frames; instead the ply skin carried the stresses. From the nose to the rear of the open cockpit, at about one third of the chord of the wing, the fuselage section was a flat-topped hexagon. To the rear, the section became a pentagon with the wing upon the uppermost vertex, overhanging the pilot. At the tail it tapered to a horizontal wedge where the Der Dessauers all-moving, single-piece tailplane was mounted at a hinge near its mid-chord. The rather angular rudder was also hinged at the extreme tail, behind a triangular fin, and was cut away on its underside to allow tailplane movement. The tail surfaces were wood framed like the wings with the forward part of the tailplane and the whole fin ply covered. The rest of the tail surface area was fabric-covered; like the wing, their trailing edges were wire-defined. The