The number of turners dropped to 815 in the season of 1818, but there seems to have been no weakening in Jahn’s hold upon the love of his followers. We hear again of the close friendships formed among them, the manly qualities encouraged, the earnest effort to be purely German in speech, custom, and dress, and the underlying seriousness of their joyous life together. After the day’s exercise they used to return to the city in groups, each with some favorite leader as its center. Singing and conversation alternated until the Kottbus gate was reached; there they halted until all had come up, joined in a final song, and then scattered to their homes. The next spring (1819) the Turnplatz did not open at the usual time. The Prussian Ministry had in mind a union of gymnastics with the whole scheme of instruction in the schools. Summer and winter exercises alike were to be under its supervision. Additional grounds were to be opened, and one site had already been secured near Berlin. The plan was nearly ready, and Jahn was informed that for the present, until it should be perfected, the authorities desired that the Hasenheide Turnplatz should remain closed. The years 1814-18 had witnessed a rapid and remarkable spread of the Jahn _Turnen_ far beyond the narrow bounds of its first home, throughout the length and breadth of the Prussian provinces, and into other German states as well. Outdoor gymnasia had been opened, for example, at Königsberg, Elbing, Marienwerder, and at least four other cities in East and West Prussia; at a score of places in Silesia, beginning with Breslau and Liegnitz, and including Bunzlau, Frankenstein, Waldenburg, Strehlen, Hirschberg, Neisse, Leobschütz, Gleiwitz, Brieg, and Kreuzburg; at Friedland, Neubrandenburg, Neustrelitz, and Malchin in Mecklenburg; Potsdam, Frankfort-on-the-Oder, and Prenzlau in Brandenburg; the free cities of Hamburg and Lübeck; in central Germany at Leipsic, Halle, Jena, Erfurt, Gotha, Eisenach, Rudolstadt, Mühlhausen, Nordhausen, and Heiligenstadt; at Frankfort, Hanau, and Offenbach on the Main, and along the Rhine at Mainz, Bonn, Cologne, and Düsseldorf; at Darmstadt and Giessen in Hesse, Heidelberg in Baden, Stuttgart and Tübingen in Württemberg, and Erlangen and Hof in Bavaria.