Little wonder that the same man who in 1813 had so gladly taken up arms to resist the invasion of Napoleon, and who had rejoiced with such enthusiasm in the prospect of a free and united Fatherland, should write in 1851: 

“Wherefore I have made a firm resolve that if the conditions of German life will not allow room for the development of honest efforts for the good of humanity; if this indifference to all higher things continues—­then it is my purpose next spring to seek in the land of union and independence a soil where my idea of education may strike deep root.”

And to America he might have gone had he lived, but he died three months later, his end hastened by grief at the edict which closed the Kindergartens.  The Prussian Minister announced, in this edict, that “it is evident that Kindergartens form a part of the Froebelian socialistic system, the aim of which is to teach the children atheism,” and the suggestion that he was anti-Christian cut the old man to the heart.  There had been some confusion between Froebel and one of his nephews, who had democratic leanings, and no doubt anything at all democratic did mean atheism to “stony Berlin” and its intolerant autocracy.

For a time, at least in Bavaria, a curious compromise was allowed.  If the teacher were a member of the Orthodox Church, she might have her Kindergarten, but if she belonged to one of the Free Churches, it was permissible to open an Infant School, but she must not use the term Kindergarten.

Froebel was by no means of the opinion that, if only the teacher had the right spirit, the name did not matter.  Rather did he hold with Confucius, whose answer to the question of a disciple, “How shall I convert the world?” was, “Call things by their right names.”  He refused to use the word school, because “little children, especially those under six, do not need to be schooled and taught, what they need is opportunity for development.”  He had great difficulty in selecting a name.  Those originally suggested were somewhat cumbrous, e.g. Institution for the Promotion of Spontaneous Activity in Children; another was Self-Teaching Institution, and there was also the one which Madame Michaelis translated “Nursery School for Little Children.”

But the name Kindergarten expressed just what he Wanted:  “As in a garden, under God’s favour, and by the care of a skilled intelligent gardener, growing plants are cultivated in accordance with Nature’s laws, so here in our child garden shall the noblest of all growing things, men (that is, children), be cultivated in accordance with the laws of their own being, of God and of Nature.”