In general the early history of these Turnplätze resembles that of the parent organization in Berlin. A majority of them were started in connection with higher schools for boys, but they often included in their membership teachers and university students, clerks and young mechanics,—all classes of society. Usually the prime mover was some teacher, impelled, like Jahn, by a motive which was patriotic rather than pedagogical; and afterwards local, provincial, or state authorities not infrequently added their support. Sometimes it was the public officials themselves who inaugurated the movement. The common incentive was the great tidal wave of love for the fatherland which swept over Germany at the time of the War of Liberation. Many a teacher who had fought in Lützow’s or some other volunteer corps and joined in the stirring songs of Karl Theodor Körner about the campfire or on the march went back to his classroom filled with a desire to see developed in his young charges a stronger patriotism, a simpler, more vigorous, and more manly type of life, less regard for distinctions of rank and wealth, a spirit of mutual helpfulness and a willingness to unite with others for the common welfare. Jahn’s _Turnen_ had already shown its fitness for these ends. In many cases assistance was received directly from Berlin. Thus in September of 1814 Jahn sent Eduard Dürre,[46] one of his Vorturners, to Friedland in Mecklenburg, where two teachers were trying to introduce the exercises in the Gelehrtenschule; and the same year Massmann started a Turnplatz at Schwerinsburg. At the request of the _Oberpräsident_ of the Rhine Province Jahn recommended in 1816 a teacher of gymnastics for Cologne, and a similar request from two Jena professors was met by persuading Massmann and Dürre to continue their studies in that university for a time. When the _Deutsche Turnkunst_ appeared in 1816 it became at once the authority on all Turnplätze and the guide in opening new ones. A glance at the contents will show how admirably and completely it meets the requirements of such a manual. Minister von Schuckmann ordered fifty copies sent to the West Prussian authorities in Marienwerder, at their request, and two hundred more for distribution among other provincial officials. In Westphalia, for example, twenty-four higher classical schools for boys were thus supplied. Numerous visitors, too, came to Berlin for a longer or shorter time to be trained as teachers of gymnastics. Some did this at their own motion and expense, and others received state support. In 1816 there were, among others, three normal school students from Weissenfels, and teachers from Neumark, Neustadt a. d. Dosse, Wusterhausen, and Neurippen. Jahn made them all welcome, charged no fees, gave his time and personal interest freely in regular hours and out, and saw that each one obtained the best possible preparation.