Attempts to secure a footing in Darmstadt and in Basel met at first with no better success; but afterwards he received from the latter city a call to the position of teacher of gymnastics and history in two higher schools for boys—the _Gymnasium_ and the _Realschule_—and at the orphan asylum, entering upon these duties in May of 1844. The following March he was relieved of the work in history in order that he might have time for instruction in gymnastics at the public girls’ school (_Töchterschule_), and preparations were also made for progressive improvement in physical training at all the city schools. Free at last to devote all his thought to the one subject, he finished in 1846 the fourth and final part (Class Exercises in Marching, _Gemein-_ or _Ordnungsübungen_) of his “System of Gymnastics,” and the next year was able to publish the first volume of a practical manual for teachers (_Turnbuch für Schulen_),[70] containing graded series of exercises suitable for boys and girls between the ages of six and ten. The second volume, covering the ages from ten to sixteen, was completed in 1851, after he had left Basel and returned to his native land. In May of 1848 Spiess accepted an offer from Minister von Gagern of Hesse, and moved to Darmstadt, the capital of the Grand Duchy, to undertake the task of introducing gymnastics into the schools of that state, beginning with the higher schools and the common schools of such communities as were prepared to take the step at once. He was also to train the requisite teaching force, and afterwards to superintend their work. The salary of the new “_Oberstudien-Assessor_” was fixed at two thousand gulden. Lessons were immediately begun with classes in two secondary schools for boys (the _Gymnasium_ and the _Realschule_) and in the higher school for girls (_Mädchen-_ or _Töchterschule_), and in a large garden lying near the center of the city the hall of a former public house was converted into a gymnasium by setting up along one side rows of vertical poles and horizontal bars and ladders, and adding to these a giant stride, parallel bars, bucks, jump stands and jumping ropes, stilts, and poles for use in vaulting. A new gymnasium or _Turnhaus_, surrounded by a double Turnplatz and containing a hall one hundred by sixty feet which could be changed into two rooms by means of a movable partition, was opened for use June 14, 1852, with classes of boys and girls from various schools. It was the first building of the kind in Germany. Public exhibitions the next year and again in 1855 acquainted parents, teachers, the grand ducal family, and the state and city authorities with the nature of his work, and increased their interest in it.