Potsdam Giants

The Potsdam Giants was the Prussian infantry regiment No 6, composed of taller-than-average soldiers. The regiment was founded in 1675 and dissolved in 1806 after the Prussian defeat against Napoleon. Throughout the reign of the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia (1688-1740) the unit was known as the "Potsdamer Riesengarde" ("giant guard of Potsdam") in German, but the Prussian population quickly nicknamed them the "Lange Kerls" ("Long guys").

Regiment´s History

The Regiment was founded with a strength of two battalions in 1675 as “Regiment Kurprinz” under the command of Prince Frederick of Brandenburg, the later King Frederick I of Prussia. In 1688 the later King Frederick William I of Prussia became the nominally Commander of the Regiment by his birth as his father expected him to play with his own Regiment and receive some military training. After Fredrick William I ascended to the throne in 1713 he proceeded to decrease expenses of the court and strengthen his military. He let Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau improve the drill and weapons of his army and hired 40,000 foreign mercenaries. He believed in harsh discipline.

He had already begun to recruit taller soldiers for it. Official name of the regiment was the 'Grand Grenadiers of Potsdam' or 'Potsdam Grenadiers' for short. However, when the number of tall soldiers increased, the regiment earned its nickname 'Potsdam Giants'. Their uniform was a red hat, blue jacket with gold trim, scarlet trousers, white stockings, and black shoes. Their weapons were muskets, white bandoleers, and daggers. The soldiers wore a hat without a brim in order to be able to throw their heavy grenades with ease.

The original required height was 6 Prussian Foot (1.88 meters, 5 ft 11 in), then well above average. The tallest soldier, the Irish James Kirkland, was reportedly 2.17 meters (about 7 feet) in height. The king — who was 1.5 meters (4'11" feet) himself — needed several hundred more recruits each year. He tried to obtain them by any means, and once confided to the French ambassador that "The most beautiful girl or woman in the world would be a matter of indifference to me, but tall soldiers--they are my weakness." He gave bonuses to fathers of tall sons and landowners who gave up their tallest farm workers to join the regiment. He recruited tall soldiers from the armies of other European countries. Foreign rulers like the Emperor of Austria, Russian Tsar Peter the Great and even the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire sent tall soldiers to him in order to encourage friendly relations. Once, Peter the Great retracted his annual gift of 40 soldiers to the regiment, and following that action, Friedrich Wilhelm refused to speak to the Russian ambassador until they were returnedFact|date=July 2008. Several soldiers were given by Tsar Peter I as a gift in return for the famous Amber Room [Rolf Fuhrmann: "Die Langen Kerls - Die preussische Riesengarde 1675/1713-1806", Zeughaus Verlag, Berlin 2007] .

If the man concerned was not interested, the king resorted to forced recruitment and kidnapping — his agents kidnapped tall priests, monks, innkeepers, etc., from all over Europe. Once they even tried to abduct an Austrian diplomat. He even forced tall women to marry tall soldiers so they could breed more tall boys. If some regimental commander failed to inform the king of a potential tall recruit under his own command, he faced royal displeasure.

Pay was high but not all giants were content, especially if they were forcibly recruited. They attempted desertion or suicide. The king's idea to stretch his troopers to make them taller was met with open rebellionFact|date=July 2008.

The king never risked the regiment in battle as he never waged war. While some sources believe in a useful background of the "Long Guys" because loading a Muzzleloader is easier to handle for a taller Soldier [Jürgen Kloosterhuis: "Legendäre „lange Kerls“. Quellen zur Regimentskultur der Königsgrenadiere Friedrich Wilhelms I., 1713–1740", Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-923579-03-9] , other claim many of the men were unfit for combat due to their Gigantism [Kurt Zeisler: "Die Langen Kerls. Das Leib- und Garderegiment Friedrich Wilhelms I.", Frankfurt/Main 1993] . The king trained and drilled his own Regiment every day. He liked to paint their portraits from memory. He tried to show them to foreign visitors and dignitaries to impress them. At times he would try to cheer himself up by ordering them to march before him, even if he was in his sickbed. This procession, which included the entire regiment, was led by their mascot, a bear.

When the king died in 1740 the Regiment had a strength of 3,200 men, but his successor Frederick the Great did not share his father's sentiments about the regiment, which seemed to him an unnecessary expense. The Regiment was largely disbanded and most Soldiers were integrated into other units of the Prussian Army. The Regiment itself was downgraded to a battalion (Garde - Grenadier No 6) and employed during the War of the Austrian Succession at Hohenfriedberg in 1745 and at Roßbach, Leuthen, Hochkirch, Liegnitz und Torgau throughout the Seven Years War. The battalion surrendered near Erfurt and Prenzlau after the Prussian defeat at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt in 1806 and was disbanded.

Tradition

Since 1990 a private association at Potsdam tries to draw on the tradition of the "Lange Kerls" and preserve the memory of that unit.

References

J.N.W. Bos. 2000. [http://www.xs4all.nl/~kvenjb/madmonarchs/fredwil1/fredwil1_bio.htm Biography of Frederick William I the Soldier King of Prussia (1657-1713)] Accessed 2007-10-03.

External links

* [http://www.Lange-Kerls.de 'Lange Kerls' association] (German)