The DFS Meise (Tomtit) was designed as a unity design glider for advanced pilots, enabling duration and long-distance flights with a plane cheap enough for the average flying club to afford. Therefore its design married the latest in aerodynamic research with simplicity of construction.

After the Olympic games in Berlin in 1936 introduced gliding as an Olympic sport, plans were made to fly the 1940 Olympic championships with a unity design sailplane to give each pilot the same chances. As a result of this, the Meise was redesigned to fit into the new Olympic class specifications. The new 'Olympia' Meise had the prescribed wingspan of 15m (45 ft), spoilers, but no wingflaps and an undercarriage consisting out of a skid and a non-retractable wheel. The pilot sat all-enclosed in an aerodynamically clean fuselage made out of laminated wood and topped by a plexiglas hood. The plane could be towed by winch as well by airplane and its wood-and-fabric construction made it easy for flying clubs to maintain and repair, on occasion even to built a complete plane as a kit.

Bothe the Maies as well as the Olympic class gained immediate enthousiasm and the 1940 Olympic gliding championship would probably have ended up as an all-Meise contest... if the second world war would not have intervened. As is, the 1940 Olympics were canceled alltogether. The Olympia Meise however survived the war and enjoyed some popularity in its original role as an advanced performance sailplane for years to come until it was eclipsed by more modern design.