There he discovered a replica of a game board which to this day is kept in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.
The game spread in German-Baltic and Prussian noble families until it was popularized by Jahn in the entire German-speaking world and in all population strata.
Jahn also pursued adult-pedagogical goals with the game: He wanted to educate the working class and improve the lives of wounded German World War I veterans.
In the 19th century, the game was most popular in the Baltic States, East and West Prussia and Pomerania.
In the Baltics, the game disappeared after the October Revolution, due to the expropriation, expulsion, and execution of the German noble families in 1917.