Berghaus had been riding numerous hobbyhorses (terrain representation, isolines, scale indicators, map projections, etc.) without much success, but now he could finally put them to work with his pupils. He very successfully disseminated many of his ideas and concepts. Moreover, his students somehow learned better than he to limit their endeavours in order to bring more of them to full fruition. Though the school itself had but few students, its residency in Potsdam, connected by rail to Berlin, and the fame of Berghaus attracted many geographers (e.g. Alexander von Humboldt, Carl Ritter and Zeune), cartographers and explorers. Petermann spoke highly of his encounters with von Humboldt and has drawn several maps for his "Atlas von Asien", on which the rendering of the Asiatic mountain-chains was of a quality corresponding to the then current view of the geographic sciences.