Hugo Rothstein (1810-1865), second lieutenant in the Prussian artillery and teacher in the artillery school at Berlin, paid a visit to Sweden in 1843, and upon his return published in _Der Staat_ (September, 1844) an article on “Gymnastics in Sweden and Ling’s System of Gymnastics.” It attracted favorable notice in military circles, and Minister of War von Boyen commissioned him to revisit the country in order to become better acquainted with the subject. Accordingly in June of 1845, now first lieutenant and accompanied by another officer, he went to Stockholm for a full course at the Central Institute of Gymnastics (_Kongl. Gymnastiska Centralinstitutet_), adding three months in Copenhagen to observe the fencing and other instruction at the Danish Royal Institute of Military Gymnastics (_Det Kongelige Militære Gymnastiske Institut_). During his second sojourn in the Swedish capital he saw much of Director Branting and Head Teacher Georgii, and was also a frequent guest at the palace of King Oscar I. In the autumn of 1846 both officers were back in Berlin. The following year Massmann published a translation of Ling’s writings on gymnastics,[75] and Rothstein had begun work at once on a series of volumes on the Ling system which appeared at intervals between 1847 and 1859.[76] A direct result of the reports by Rothstein and Techow (the infantry lieutenant who had been his companion) was the founding in Berlin of a “Central Institute for Gymnastic Instruction in the Army” (_Zentralinstitut für gymnastischen Unterricht in der Armee_), with the two officers as teachers. Lübeck’s gymnasium on Blumenstrasse was used for the practical exercises, and the first course there was begun October 1, 1847; but the rioting which broke out in Berlin the next spring, following the February revolution in Paris, brought it to a sudden close. Two years later, however, the foundations of a new building were laid in Scharnhorststrasse, and now it was decided to train both military and civilian teachers in a single school, rechristened “Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics” (_Königliche Zentral-Turnanstalt_) and opened to pupils October 1, 1851. Rothstein was made director of instruction (_Unterrichtsdirigent_). In his own teaching he employed the Ling apparatus and exercises, making light of Jahn’s _Turnen_, and for anatomical and physiological reasons rejecting the parallel bars unconditionally. This action gave rise to repeated protests from _Turnvereine_ in Berlin and other German cities, who regarded it as a part of the government’s reactionary policy, and led to a violent controversy (the _Barrenstreit_) in the years 1861 and 1862. Dr. Carl Philipp Euler (1828-1901), who became civilian teacher in 1860, had proposed that the banished apparatus be restored. Petitions, memorials, and opinions for and against its use multiplied, and the discussion was widened to include the whole subject of the comparative merits