Elsewhere in Germany, however, new adherents were at work, and the movement which had begun in Brunswick and been greatly extended by the Düsseldorf judge was soon to become national in its scope. One state, and that the leading one, had already given its official sanction. Gustav von Gossler (1838-1902), Prussian minister of public worship and instruction in the years 1881-1891, himself trained in gymnastics as a schoolboy in Potsdam and Königsberg, an expert fencer in his university days, a good oarsman and a strong swimmer and skater, had been an interested listener at the sessions of the ninth national convention of German teachers of gymnastics, held in Berlin, June 7-9, 1881, while he was still under-secretary. There the first morning was taken up by two papers which urged the necessity of systematic use of games and school excursions on foot as a supplement to formal gymnastics, and by a discussion which led to the adoption of recommendations to that effect.[98] In the following November Hartwich’s pamphlet appeared, and a year later von Gossler, as we have seen, invited him to an interview; but before this took place the minister had already issued (October 27, 1882) his momentous “Order relating to the provision of playgrounds for the promotion of gymnastics in the open air and to stimulate participation in active games.”[99] He begins by saying that when gymnastics was first made an integral part of the instruction in higher and lower schools, effort was naturally directed toward securing room indoors where the exercises might be carried on without regard to season and weather. But the playground is not less valuable, and he sums up impressively the beneficial influence it may exert on the entire life of the pupil, concluding with these words: “The school must foster play as an expression of youthful life salutary for body and mind, for heart and soul alike, along with the increase in physical strength and skill and the ethical effects which attend it, and this must be done not merely now and then, but as a matter of course and in a systematic way.” Attempts in this direction have been few and scattered hitherto. He then refers to the books of GutsMuths and Jahn and to some recent works, mentions a number of suitable games, calls attention to certain articles which contain useful hints, and among them one of Koch’s on the history and organization of the Brunswick school games, and suggests at some length practical ways of carrying out the purpose of the order. School excursions, swimming, and skating are also recommended. Other ministerial orders and announcements which followed within the next few years touch upon every phase of gymnastics and games, and for girls as well as for boys and young men.