The city authorities had erected a new, attractive, and roomy building for the school, and now placed at its head Friedrich Fröbel, already widely known for his book "The Education of Man" (1826). Also present were Heinrich Langethal (1792–1879) and Wilhelm Middendorf (1793–1853) who had been associated with Fröbel for fourteen years in his school in the Thuringian village of Keilhau, and after the few years in Burgdorf were again to be his helpers when the first kindergarten was opened at Blankenburg, another Thuringian town. All three had been members of Lützow's Free Corps during the War of Liberation, and through residence in Berlin had come under the influence of Jahn and his work at the Hasenheide "Turnplatz".