The Wasserfall was one of a number of German anti-aircraft missiles (SAM) designs explored during the war as an attempt to defend German strategics target from growing Allied bombing raids.

Initial design and specifications for this missile was worked on through 1941-1942, with prototype launches starting in March of 1943. The airframe was much like a small V-2 rocket, with extra fins located approximately mid-fuselage. On the early prototypes (W1 series) these fins were quite large and were offset 45o from the steering fins at the base. The fins were later reduced in size and mounted inline with the rear fins (W5 series). A smaller version, reduced in size by approximately 1/3, and using more non-strategic materials was planned (W10 series).

The rocket motor used two fluids for fuel - Visol (vinyl isobutyl ether) and SV-Stoff (RFNA 'Red Fuming Nitric Acid' - 94% nitric acid, 6% dinitrogen tetroxide), forced into the combustion chamber by pressurizing the fuel tanks with nitrogen gas released from another tank. These liquids are hypergolic, igniting upon contact to provide thrust. Steering the rocket was by manual command to line of sight (MCLOS), where the operator employed a joystick to guide the rocket, tracking its flight via the exhaust plume. Radar was also being developed for night time and poor visibility operations.

A warhead of 100 kg was originally planned, but because of accuracy concerns it was replaced with one of 306 kg to provide a larger blast radius.