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When on 7 July 1923 his glider S 13, designed for the IV Rhön Competition, crashed as a result of a material defect, in which the pilot Wolf Hirth suffered a fractured pelvis, Messerschmitt developed the closely based design S 14 in a very short time in order to be able to take part in the meeting after all. He largely retained the plywood-planked hull boat with closed driver's seat and skid as well as the wing controls, which he had taken over from his joint learning and construction time with the aviation pioneer Friedrich Harth. The wing, which was designed in a high-wing configuration, was therefore not equipped with ailerons, but had a steerable, double-hinged, plywood-planked middle piece with two diagonal fuselage struts for changing direction. Fundamental changes concerned the use of a new Göttingen-Gö-482 wing profile borrowed from the HAWA Vampyr (S 13: Gö 535) and the slightly shortened wingspan. The structure with a torsionally rigid box spar, planked front edge and otherwise torsion-soft wooden framework with celloned fabric covering was largely identical.

Two examples of the S 14 were built, the construction of which was carried out by Willy Messerschmitt in his company Flugzeugbau Messerschmitt, Bamberg, which was newly founded in 1923. The financing was secured by Messerschmitt's older brother Ferdinand, who had also supported the founding of the company. The aircraft were completed in time to take part in the main competition of the Rhön Meeting, which took place in the last two weeks of August. On the penultimate day of the competition, Hans Hackmack managed to reach a height of 303 m above the starting point with an S 14 in gusty weather with about 20 m/s in about 2 minutes, the highest height reached in the Rhön in 1923. While trying to surpass this best performance, the pilot Max Standfuss was killed in the crash of his monoplane Erfurt. In addition to the altitude prize, Hackmack also won the Albert Böhm Prize for the highest flight altitude, the Medal of Honour of the German Aviation Association (DLV) for the highest flying performance and the 2nd prize in the distance competition for the flight distance achieved. For the development of the S 14, Messerschmitt was awarded one of the two design prizes awarded by the Georgenstiftung. In addition, Messerschmitt submitted the construction plans of the S 14 as his diploma thesis in November 1923 and thus successfully completed his mechanical engineering studies at the Technical University of Munich.

After some improvements, one of the two S 14s was sold to the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Unterfranken Würzburg.