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.
The original required height was 6 Prussian Foot (about 6’2” or 1.88 meters), well above average then and now. One of the tallest soldiers, the Irish James Kirkland, was reportedly 2.17 meters (about 7 feet) in height. Another member of the regiment was Daniel Cajanus. The king — who was about 1.6 meters 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.”
If the man was not interested in joining the regiment, 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.
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.
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