1828, when he was exiled to on a charge of sedition. While at , he received an invitation to become professor of German literature at Cambridge, Massachusetts, which he declined, saying that "deer and hares love to live where they are most hunted." In 1840, was decorated by the Prussian government with the Iron Cross for bravery in the wars against Napoleon. In the spring of 1848, he was elected by the district of Naumburg to the German National Parliament. died in 1852 in Freyburg, where a monument was erected in his honor in 1859. popularized the four Fs motto ", , , " ("fresh, pious, cheerful, free") in the early 19th century. Works Among his works are the following: (, 1806), (, 1810), (Frankfurt, 1814), (Berlin, 1816) (Naumburg, 1828), (, 1833), and (, 1863). A complete edition of his works appeared at in 18841887. See the biography by (Berlin, 1894), and , by (Munich, 1895). Contribution to physical education promoted the use of parallel bars, rings and the high bar in international competition. In honor and memory of him, some gymnastic clubs, called , took up his name, the most well known of these is probably the . Gymnastics classes inspired by design started opening in the United States in 1825 under the expertise and advocacy of Germans Charles Beck and Charles Follen, as well as American John Neal. Beck opened the first gymnasium in the US in 1825 at the Round Hill School in Northampton, Massachusetts. Follen opened the first college gymnasium and the first public gymnasium in the US in Massachusetts in 1826 at Harvard College and in nearby Boston, respectively. Neal was the first American to open a public gymnasium in the US in Portland, Maine in 1827. During this period, Neal spread concepts in the US in the American Journal of Education and The Yankee, helping to establish the American branch of the movement. A memorial to exists in St. Louis, Missouri, within its Forest Park. It features a large bust of in the center of an arc of stone, with statues of a male and female gymnast, one on each end of the arc. The monument is on the edge of Art Hill next to the path running north and south along the western edge of Post-Dispatch Lake. It is directly north of the St. Louis Zoo. On the plaque below his bronze bust,