When Froebel, in the spring of 1817, resigned his position, his friend Langethal begged him to take his brother Eduard as another pupil, and thus Pestalozzi's enthusiastic disciple and comrade found his dearest wish fulfilled.

He was now the head of his own school for boys, and these first six pupils--as he hoped with the confidence in the star of success peculiar to so many men of genius--must soon increase to twenty.

Some of these boys were specially gifted: one became the scholar and politician Julius Froebel, who belonged to the Frankfort Parliament of 1848, and another the Jena Professor of Botany, Eduard Langethal.
The new principal of the school could not teach alone, but he only needed to remind his old army comrade, Middendorf, of his promise, to induce him to interrupt his studies in Berlin, which were nearly completed, and join him.

He also had his eye on Langethal, if his hope should be fulfilled.

He knew what a treasure he would possess for his object in this rare man.
There was great joy in the little Griesheim circle, and the Thuringian (Froebel) did not regret for a moment that he had resigned his secure position; but the Westphalian (Middendorf) saw here the realization of the ideal which Froebel's kindling words had impressed upon his soul beside many a watch-fire.
The character of the two men is admirably described in the following passage from a letter of "the oldest pupil": "Both had seen much of the serious side of life, and returned from the war with the higher inspiration which is hallowed by deep religious feeling.