As early as 1920, Zittau (today's large district town, which in the Middle Ages belonged to the Upper Lusatian Six-City League and from the 17th century onwards was one of the richest trading towns) (during the flourishing of Saxony) six young people founded a model and glider club. In the spring of 1922, this group joined forces with 20 former war pilots to form the Zittau Gliding Association. They began with model building to gain experience in glider construction. Initial results with hang gliders – one with a bamboo frame and paper covering and one on high stilts – remained unsatisfactory. With a third, based on Pelzner's design, the first successes were achieved. In a club chronicle from 1928, it reads as follows: A lighter, fuselage-type aircraft, built specifically for our Zittau terrain, with a wingspan of 12.5 meters, is also a monoplane. This aircraft has already completed 35 longer flights on neighboring sites and serves as a training aircraft. The club pilot was Hans(Johannes) Fischer (1894-1946). He learned to fly in the military in 1916, then worked for a considerable time as a flight instructor and after the war, he practiced various flying activities – with 8,000 flights recorded in his logbooks – such as piloting a Polish cavalry captain. When, after the change of power in 1933, the Zittau Aviation Club became a local group of the newly founded German Air Sports Association (also DLV) was to be formed, and Hans Fischer became its leader. He remained in charge of it even when, in the course of the Gleichschaltung (coordination) law of April 17, 1937, the local group was absorbed as Sturm 6/38 into the National Socialist Flying Corps (NSFK). Fischer rose to the rank of Hauptsturmführer (captain), which led to his imprisonment in 1946, during which he died of pneumonia. The engineer Horst Meusel (1903–2000), employed in the automotive industry, became active as a designer for the group. In the club's... He is already mentioned as secretary in the spring of 1922, and the three mentioned successful glider and sailplane designs originated with him. The native of Leipzig probably came to Upper Lusatia through his father's profession, a senior customs inspector. In any case, he attended the Gymnasium (grammar school) in Zittau before dedicating himself to engineering studies. Issued on July 9, 1928, he obtained his powered aircraft pilot's license at the Saxon Flying School in Leipzig and acquired his glider pilot's license on August 26, 1934. In 1935, he joined the aircraft construction department of the Gotha Wagon Factory, where he remained as a group leader until 1945. After the war, Horst Meusel returned to car manufacturing and successfully established a racing department in Eisenach in the 1950s. Back in Gotha, he eventually became a specialist in vibration damping elements made of metal and rubber, holding numerous patents. The Zittau group made the decision to design and build a powered aircraft during the winter months of 1926/27 – probably triggered by the declaration of intent for the Saxony Flight.
