Editing Potsdam Giants

{{Short description|Prussian regiment of tall soldiers}}
{{More citations needed|date=June 2024}}
[[File:Hohenfriedeberg - Attack of Prussian Infantry - 1745.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|The Potsdam Giants at the [[Battle of Hohenfriedeberg]], as depicted by [[Carl Röchling]]]]
The '''Potsdam Giants''' was the name given to [[Prussia]]n [[infantry]] [[regiment]] No 6. The regiment was composed of taller-than-average soldiers, and was founded in 1675. It was eventually dissolved in 1806, after the Prussians were defeated by [[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''<!--sic! "Kerls" is a dated but correct German plural--> ("long fellows").

==Regiment's history==
[[File: Langer Kerl Schwerid Rediwanoff.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Prussian ''Langer Kerl'' by [[Johann Christof Merck]], 1718]]
The Regiment was founded with a strength of two [[battalion]]s 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 nominal Commander of the Regiment. After Frederick William I ascended to the throne in 1713, he proceeded to strengthen his military, including hiring 40,000 [[mercenary|mercenaries]].
He had already begun to recruit taller soldiers and needed several hundred more recruits each year.

As the number of tall soldiers increased, the regiment earned its nickname "Potsdam Giants". The original required height was 6 [[Foot (unit)#Other obsolete feet|Prussian feet]] (about {{convert|6|ft|2|in|m|abbr=on|disp=or}}),<ref>[http://lexikon.meyers.de/wissen/Lange+Kerls+(Sachartikel) meyers.de] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100526044233/http://lexikon.meyers.de/wissen/Lange+Kerls+(Sachartikel) |date=2010-05-26 }}</ref> well [[Human height|above average]] then and now. The king was about {{convert|1.60|m|ftin|abbr=on}} tall himself.<ref>[http://militaergeschichte.suite101.de/article.cfm/lange_kerls militaergeschichte.de] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210184132/http://militaergeschichte.suite101.de/article.cfm/lange_kerls |date=2008-12-10 }}</ref> He tried to obtain them by any means, including recruiting them from the armies of other countries. The Emperor of Austria, Russian [[Tsar]] [[Peter I of Russia|Peter the Great]] and even the [[Sultan]] of the [[Ottoman Empire]] sent him tall soldiers in order to encourage friendly relations. Several soldiers were given by Tsar Peter I as a gift in return for the famous [[Amber Room]].<ref>Rolf Fuhrmann: ''Die Langen Kerls - Die preussische Riesengarde 1675/1713-1806'', Zeughaus Verlag, Berlin 2007</ref> Pay was high, but not all giants were content, especially if they were forcibly recruited, and some attempted desertion or suicide.

Frederick tried to pair these men with tall women, in order to breed giants. In ''[[The Descent of Man]]'', [[Charles Darwin]] mentions this attempt as the only case of intentional selective breeding in humans: "Nor have certain male and female individuals been intentionally picked out and matched, except in the well-known case of the Prussian grenadiers; and in this case man obeyed, as might have been expected, the law of methodical selection; for it is asserted that many tall men were reared in the villages inhabited by the grenadiers with their tall wives."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Darwin |first1=Charles |title=The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex |date=1871 |publisher=John Murray |page=112 |url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=1&itemID=F937.1&viewtype=text |accessdate=9 February 2021}}</ref>

Although Prussia briefly intervened in the [[Great Northern War]], the Potsdam Giants never saw battle.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Military Engineer, Vol. 30 |date=1938 |publisher=Society of American Military Engineers |page=451 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gf3mAAAAMAAJ&q=times+never+fought+battle |access-date=9 October 2024}}</ref> Some sources state that there was a military reason to create a regiment of "long fellows" because loading a [[muzzleloader]] is easier to handle for a taller soldier.<ref>Jürgen Kloosterhuis: ''Legendäre „lange Kerls“. Quellfen zur Regimentskultur der Königsgrenadiere Friedrich Wilhelms I., 1713–1740'', Berlin 2003, {{ISBN|3-923579-03-9}}</ref> Another source states that many of the men were unfit for combat due to their [[gigantism]].<ref>Kurt Zeisler: ''Die Langen Kerls. Das Leib- und Garderegiment Friedrich Wilhelms I.'', Frankfurt/Main 1993</ref>

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. Their uniform was not in any way unique for the time, consisting of a red [[mitre]], a [[Prussian blue]] jacket with gold lacing, scarlet [[breeches]] and white [[gaiter]]s.

One of the tallest soldiers, the Irishman [[James Kirkland (Irish giant)|James Kirkland]], was reportedly {{convert|2.17|m|ftin|abbr=on|frac=2}}<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ub9abe0LvVcC&dq=James+Kirkland+potsdam&pg=PA13 Potsdam at Marco Polo]</ref> in height. Kirkland's fellow Irishman, the poet [[Tomás Ó Caiside]], also served in the regiment. [[Daniel Cajanus]], the famous Swedish/Finnish giant, was also a member of the regiment. 

When the king died in 1740, the regiment consisted of 3,200 men. However, 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 of its soldiers were integrated into other units. 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 [[Battle of Rossbach|Rossbach]], [[Battle of Leuthen|Leuthen]], [[Battle of Hochkirch|Hochkirch]], [[Battle of Liegnitz (1760)|Liegnitz]], and [[Battle of Torgau|Torgau]] throughout the [[Seven Years' War]]. The battalion surrendered near [[Erfurt]] and [[Prenzlau]] after the Prussian defeat at the [[Battle of Jena–Auerstedt|Battle of Jena-Auerstedt]] in 1806 and was disbanded and absorbed into the [[1st Foot Guards (German Empire)|1st Guard Regiment on foot]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
* 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/en/_0 'Lange Kerls' association] (English)

[[Category:Guards regiments of the Prussian Army]]
[[Category:History of Potsdam|Giants]]
[[Category:Military units and formations established in 1675]]
[[Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 1806]]
[[Category:1675 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire]]
[[Category:1806 disestablishments in Prussia]]
[[Category:Frederick I of Prussia]]
[[Category:Frederick William I of Prussia]]