With 1.4 million members in around 15,000 clubs, the German Shooting Association (DSB) is the fourth-largest elite sports association in the German Olympic Sports Confederation. In addition to the Olympic disciplines of rifle, pistol, clay target and bow, it also supports the sports of running target, muzzle loader, field bow, crossbow, summer biathlon and archery biathlon.

Like all other sports organizations, the DSB was dissolved in 1933 ("Selbstgleichschaltung") and transferred to the German Reichsbund für Leibesübungen. It was re-founded after the Second World War on September 16, 1951 in Frankfurt am Main.

The delegates' meeting held in Cologne on 17 and 18 November 1951 elected the Wiesbaden dentist and 1936 Berlin Olympian, Dr. Paul Wehner (1896-1982), as the first post-war president and made Wiesbaden the seat of the association. In 1965, a new office was built in Klarenthal on the site of the shooting school in Lahnstraße, which had existed since 1961, and was extended in 1994.

From 1960-80, the Wiesbaden federal office was also the headquarters of the World Shooting Sport Federation, and in 2009-11 it was also the headquarters of the European Shooting Confederation (ESC).