Basedow and Wolke tried to persuade businessman and educational pioneer, Johann Peter Hundeiker (1751–1836), to teach at the school - he turned down their request, but went on to found his own school in Vechelde near Braunschweig inspired by the Dessau model.
In 1784 he became drawing master at the Philanthropinum, a progressive school in Dessau where he taught art to the crown prince, Frederick.
The curriculum borrowed ideas from John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and especially Johann Bernhard Basedow, the founder of the first Philanthropinum, a progressive experimental school in Dessau.