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CLASSIC: The Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I Tried To Make An Army of Super Tall Soldiers · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Fellow ridiculous historians, we are returning with a week of
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: classics because in honor of Labor Day, we decided to
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: kick back and take a little time off.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Without laboring.
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: Yes.
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  Speaker 2: Turns out Labor Day is not about laboring. It's about
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: not laboring and honoring them what labor. And all the,
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: you know, shout out to Max, the progress we've made.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: give or take, as a country towards unionization and treating
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: people with respect when it comes to working and all that.
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  Speaker 1: And so in honor of that celebration, as we said,
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  Speaker 1: we're away for a week, but we didn't want to
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  Speaker 1: leave you without some dope episodes to step to or
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  Speaker 1: listen to. This story sticks with us. This comes to
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  Speaker 1: us from 2019 when we explored the story of King
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  Speaker 1: Frederick I, Wilhelm I, very into super soldiers.
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  Speaker 2: Super tall soldiers, Ben.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: It was a bit of an odd flex. A bunch
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  Speaker 2: of gangly dudes with a lot of reach. Kind of
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  Speaker 2: like our buddy Abraham Lincoln.
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  Speaker 1: Tall?
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  Speaker 2: I don't quite understand the strategy here.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, there were a lot of strange things about this
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  Speaker 1: crew called the Potsdam Giants. Specifically the fact that If
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  Speaker 1: you were a tall person and the king wanted you
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  Speaker 1: in his army and you didn't want to sign up,
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  Speaker 1: he would straight up kidnap you.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I guess it's sort of like Pete Hegsguth
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  Speaker 2: saying no fatties in the army.
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  Speaker 1: This is no shorties, you know? And we can't wait
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  Speaker 1: to hear your thoughts on this one. Noel, what say
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  Speaker 1: we just roll the tape?
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  Speaker 2: Well, Ben, I say huzzah.
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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. ¶ ¶ Welcome
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: to the show, Ridiculous Historians, and thank you for tuning in.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: My name is Ben. I've got a question. Do you
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: guys remember the band They Might Be Giants?
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  Speaker 3: Maybe. Certainly do, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I was doing a bit, because it's like, They Might
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  Speaker 2: Be Giants, I might remember. They Might Be Giants. I'm Noel,
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: by the way. Who are you?
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Oh, I'm Ben. I said that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I see. I can never remember if you said
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  Speaker 2: it or not. That's super producer Casey Pegram.
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  Speaker 3: Hello.
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  Speaker 1: Casey, you said you remember They Might Be Giants?
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember the Istanbul song. I remember Particle Man.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Birdhouse in Your Soul?
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  Speaker 3: Yep, yep. All the stuff that kind of made its
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: way into Animaniacs.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: And Animaniacs had some great music going on in general, right?
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  Speaker 1: That song where they name all the countries?
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  Speaker 3: I was just thinking about that.
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  Speaker 1: That's the one that's actually, since we're talking a bit
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  Speaker 1: about nostalgia, that is the song that inspired me as
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  Speaker 1: a child to learn one of my many useless skills,
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  Speaker 1: which is naming all UN-recognized countries in the world. which
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  Speaker 1: I can do and, you know, is completely useless. No
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  Speaker 1: one cares.
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  Speaker 2: Let's see if I can pull up a little lyric
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  Speaker 2: sheet of the song and see if I can even
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  Speaker 2: do it. So it's United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru, Republic, Dominica, Cuba, Caribbean, Greenland,
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  Speaker 2: El Salvador too. That's the song.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I just wanted to see if I could fit the
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  Speaker 2: syllables in correctly. If you could do the K, I
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  Speaker 2: absolutely could.
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  Speaker 3: You got it.
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  Speaker 1: You nailed it. So we're talking about They Might Be
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  Speaker 1: Giants and a little bit of nostalgia, mainly because it's
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  Speaker 1: such a, creative band name, right? But also because today's
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  Speaker 1: episode is about people who actually were giants or they
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  Speaker 1: were called giants. Specifically, they were called the Potsdam Giants.
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  Speaker 1: So here's the shtick. Today's story takes place in Prussia.
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  Speaker 1: Prussia at the time, and this is around the, this
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  Speaker 1: is leading up to the early 18th century. So just
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  Speaker 1: before then, Prussia at the time It was a military state,
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  Speaker 1: but it was poor. It didn't have a huge population.
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  Speaker 1: The land wasn't super fertile. They didn't have a ton
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  Speaker 1: of resources, you know, like mines or natural fisheries. And
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  Speaker 1: they didn't have many natural borders, like rivers or mountains
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  Speaker 1: and so on. It kind of blended in to other
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  Speaker 1: German states in the West and then sort of washed
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  Speaker 1: into a gradient of Poland in the East. And this
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  Speaker 1: meant that it was Pretty easy to invade.
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  Speaker 2: Turns out, no connection to Russia whatsoever. Completely different etymology.
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  Speaker 1: Yes. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And now, I mean, you may be like, where's Prussia?
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  Speaker 2: What's Prussia all about? Prussia no longer a thing. But
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  Speaker 2: there is a city in Pennsylvania called King of Prussia,
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  Speaker 2: and it's got a pretty nice outlet mall.
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  Speaker 3: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. King of Prussia always baffled me as far as
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  Speaker 1: names go. Actually, you know what, folks? While you're listening
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: to today's episode, just if it occurs to you Will
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: you please write to us and let us know your
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: favorite weird town names? There's Batman Australia. That's a real thing.
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  Speaker 1: King of Prussia.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: That's one of the best ones we have here.
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  Speaker 2: For sure. Now you're putting me on the spot. I
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  Speaker 2: definitely have one that's a go-to, but it's escaping right now.
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  Speaker 2: See if I can come up with it by the
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  Speaker 2: end of the episode. But today we are talking about obsession.
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  Speaker 2: We are talking about... the need to separate yourself from
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  Speaker 2: the herd, you know, like to kind of like rise
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  Speaker 2: above the ranks, shall we say. And that is exactly
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  Speaker 2: what King Frederick William I of Prussia tried to do
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  Speaker 2: in what ended up being a pretty creepy, kidnappy kind
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  Speaker 2: of weird way.
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  Speaker 1: Yes. So here's how we got here. So we said
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  Speaker 1: when we're setting the stage leading up to the 18th century,
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  Speaker 1: Since the 15th century or so, it was tough to
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  Speaker 1: be in charge of this thing called Prussia. However, they
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  Speaker 1: had a skilled family of rulers. Oh, it's my turn
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  Speaker 1: for this one, huh? The Hohenzollerns. Sure.
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  Speaker 2: That sounds good.
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  Speaker 1: H-O-H-E-N-Z-O-L-L-E-R-N-S.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, a second H, huh? Interesting. I defer to your knowledge.
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  Speaker 2: I would have thought it would have been like an
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  Speaker 2: E with an umlaut, but it's a Hohenzollers.
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  Speaker 1: I think you did a better job.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I gave it my best.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you know, you also used to live in Germany.
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  Speaker 2: As a small German child. It has since escaped me,
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  Speaker 2: all of the culture and beautiful culture. tradition of the
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  Speaker 2: German people.
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  Speaker 1: You still have the German shining, I believe in you.
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  Speaker 1: So these rulers held Brandenburg since the 15th century. And
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  Speaker 1: over time, through their diplomacy and political maneuvering, they came
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  Speaker 1: to possess other dominions, including the original region, which was
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  Speaker 1: called Prussia in the east. And in the 17th century,
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  Speaker 1: it was just another part of this thing called the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Roman Empire. Great name. Very dramatic.
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  Speaker 2: Crazy little thing called the Holy Roman Empire. Yes, exactly.
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  Speaker 1: And in 1660, a guy named Frederick William of the
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  Speaker 1: House of... How do we say it, Noel?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, gosh. Hohenzollern. Hohenzollern. Hohenzollern.
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  Speaker 1: Yes. This guy, Frederick William, he's the grandfather of the
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  Speaker 1: main character of our story. He inherited all of the
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  Speaker 1: house's possessions. And he said, look, we can't... rely on
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  Speaker 1: this economy built on agriculture and natural resources because we
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  Speaker 1: don't really have enough of that. We can't count on
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  Speaker 1: natural borders like mountains to protect us.
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  Speaker 2: Because we don't have those either.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So he said we need to become a militaristic state.
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  Speaker 2: Interesting. By the way, there's going to be a lot
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  Speaker 2: of Fredericks going on here in this lineage, not the
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  Speaker 2: most creative namers of humans.
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  Speaker 1: No Matt Fredericks, though.
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  Speaker 2: Ah, that's a shame. We'll get him back eventually, though,
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  Speaker 2: I promise. So, yeah, it's true. Frederick William. William? I'm
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  Speaker 2: going to go with the American pronunciation so I don't
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  Speaker 2: sound like a tool. Frederick William, yeah, of the house Hohenzollern.
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  Speaker 2: He said he got all of this stuff and decided, okay,
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  Speaker 2: he's going to start this obsession a generation before his
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  Speaker 2: son William of becoming this kind of militaristic state. And
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  Speaker 2: this really carries over. Okay, so let's go back to Grandfather.
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  Speaker 2: who decides to assemble this army.
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  Speaker 1: Prussia was able to advance its position by saying, hey,
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  Speaker 1: we'll send these troops over for you to help you
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  Speaker 1: with your combat or with your, you know, whatever you're
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  Speaker 1: doing in the east or the west or so on.
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  Speaker 1: And in return, give us some recognition. This comes to
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  Speaker 1: a head when Frederick William's son, another guy named Frederick,
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  Speaker 1: uses the military to as leverage against the emperor of
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Roman Empire in 1701. The emperor says, hey, Prussia,
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  Speaker 1: I need some extra firepower in the War of Spanish Succession.
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  Speaker 1: And Frederick says, okay, yeah, we'll send you some of
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  Speaker 1: our awesome troops if you recognize us as a kingdom.
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  Speaker 1: And that's how he became King Frederick I of Prussia.
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  Speaker 1: Fast forward, in 1713, Frederick I William, who is the
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  Speaker 1: son of Frederick I, a lot of Freds, you're right,
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  Speaker 1: ascends to the Prussian throne and pretty much immediately gets
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  Speaker 1: weird with it.
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  Speaker 2: He definitely does. And I want to point out one
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  Speaker 2: funny little distinction that I've seen it printed a couple
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  Speaker 2: of different ways. But the original Frederick, if I'm not mistaken,
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  Speaker 2: and please, ridiculous historian community, take me to task on this.
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  Speaker 2: The original title was King in Prussia, not King of Prussia.
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  Speaker 2: And then it became replaced with the subsequent generation after
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  Speaker 2: they got a little more leverage with King of Prussia.
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  Speaker 2: So the original one was almost more like sort of
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  Speaker 2: King in the North instead of King of the North.
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  Speaker 2: You know, it's like you're a king, you're in your zone,
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  Speaker 2: but you're not the king of it because the, you know,
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  Speaker 2: there was the powers that be. we're still basically in charge.
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  Speaker 1: Right. I see what you're saying. So you're kind of
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  Speaker 1: the head assistant. Exactly.
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  Speaker 2: Still.
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  Speaker 1: That's fascinating. I didn't think about that, but that's an
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  Speaker 1: important distinction, man. Thank you for pointing that out.
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  Speaker 2: Sure thing.
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  Speaker 1: So Frederick William I, at this point, has spent his
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  Speaker 1: entire life being told by everyone in a position of
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  Speaker 1: power that the most important thing their kingdom has is
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  Speaker 1: the military. As a result... Armies are even more important
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  Speaker 1: to him than they have been to his father or
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  Speaker 1: his grandfather. And he got, I said he got weird
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  Speaker 1: with it, folks. It's not hyperbole. Casey, I asked if
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: you wanted to hear the spoilers about this off air
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  Speaker 1: before we were recording. And Casey said, no, I want
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  Speaker 1: to hear it in real time.
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  Speaker 3: I'm a purist, you know. I want to hear it
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  Speaker 3: like the folks out there in podcast land hear it.
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  Speaker 2: Casey on the case.
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  Speaker 1: Perfect. So here we go, Casey.
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  Speaker 2: This is for you.
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  Speaker 1: When we say that armies were important to Frederick William I,
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  Speaker 1: we mean that he adored them on a personal level.
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  Speaker 1: He was always hanging out with the boys. He was
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  Speaker 1: popping open a cold one with the boys. He shrunk
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  Speaker 1: his own household budget and sold most of the horses, jewels,
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  Speaker 1: and furniture that belonged to his father such that he
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  Speaker 1: cut his expenses by about three quarters and spent all
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  Speaker 1: the money he had saved On armies instead.
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  Speaker 2: I think the word we're looking for maybe is Spartan.
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  Speaker 2: He existed in this very militaristic and no frills kind
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  Speaker 2: of way because he wanted to be respected by his guys.
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  Speaker 2: No real indication that he would fight alongside them or anything,
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  Speaker 2: but he definitely wanted to at least adopt that lifestyle.
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  Speaker 2: He was kind of known for being something of a quack,
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  Speaker 2: a kook, an eccentric perhaps. And he was known– there's
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  Speaker 2: a really great article on rapiddiffusion.com that goes through some
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  Speaker 2: of history's most peculiar rulers. And I love that it
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  Speaker 2: refers to Frederick and his tall blokes, which we're going
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  Speaker 2: to get to in a minute. But according to this article,
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  Speaker 2: he would roam the streets of Berlin in kind of
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  Speaker 2: like a worn uniform. And he would actually just kind
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  Speaker 2: of like walk up to anyone that he thought wasn't
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  Speaker 2: acting right, whatever that means, and would– use this walking
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  Speaker 2: stick he had to give them a good whacking.
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  Speaker 1: If he felt they were behaving inappropriately, right?
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  Speaker 2: Seems like a really ill-tempered kind of not a very
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  Speaker 2: friendly dude.
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  Speaker 1: So can you imagine maybe you're out somewhere and you're
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  Speaker 1: partying or you've had an argument, you know, you're somehow
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  Speaker 1: at a state of enhanced emotions, right? And maybe you're
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  Speaker 1: not behaving as normal. And then someone starts whacking the
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  Speaker 1: tar out of you with a cane or a stick.
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  Speaker 1: And you try to fight back and you realize, oh, wait,
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  Speaker 1: never mind. That's the king.
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  Speaker 2: My bad.
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  Speaker 1: My bad, G. Or my bad, F. So he's a
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  Speaker 1: complex character, right? He is attacking people in the streets.
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  Speaker 1: He's not killing them for sport, but he is, as
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  Speaker 1: you said, he's whacking them. He also doesn't think the
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  Speaker 1: treasury should be a source of personal revenue. And that's
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  Speaker 1: something a lot of politicians across the world could learn
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  Speaker 1: from today. And he greatly emphasized the importance of the military.
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  Speaker 1: Between his accession to the throne in 1713 and his
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  Speaker 1: death in 1740, he expanded the size of the Prussian
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  Speaker 1: army from 38,000 men to 83,000 men. And eventually, according
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: to a couple of different sources, one in every nine
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  Speaker 1: men in Prussia was a soldier in and another 40,000
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  Speaker 1: were foreign mercenaries. This is why he became known as
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  Speaker 1: the Soldier King. And he went through these military projects
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  Speaker 1: that paved the way for his son, who was also,
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  Speaker 1: spoiler alert, named Frederick, Frederick the Great, to turn Prussia
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  Speaker 1: into a great European power. But the thing he loved
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  Speaker 1: the most out of all of his almost 100,000 soldiers,
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  Speaker 1: out of all of his military trappings, was a personal
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  Speaker 1: regiment that he designed that we know today as the
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  Speaker 1: Potsdam Giants.
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  Speaker 2: Also known as the Potsdamer Riesengard. Riesengard?
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  Speaker 1: Or the Long Guys.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, or the Giant Guard of Potsdam. And this was
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  Speaker 2: not a coincidence. This was that these men were so stately.
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  Speaker 2: He recruited them And dare we say, went even further
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  Speaker 2: than that eventually for this very effect. So he maintained
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  Speaker 2: and had trained this unit of the tallest men around.
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  Speaker 2: Some rumor that one, I think a Swedish recruit was
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  Speaker 2: even like up to eight feet tall.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. The only requirement for joining this regiment was that
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  Speaker 1: you had to be over six feet tall. That doesn't sound.
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  Speaker 1: especially difficult today. And these are modern ages because people
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  Speaker 1: are tending to get taller. But back then that was
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  Speaker 1: freakishly tall. You know what I mean? They were given
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  Speaker 1: these great uniforms. They were given these weird caps that were,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: I think, 18 inches high to make them look even taller.
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  Speaker 1: And then they were given the best rooms and the
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: best food. And they also got paid, but they got
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: paid in a weird way. They didn't get paid by seniority.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: They didn't get paid by experience.
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  Speaker 2: No, they got paid like literally for their height. And
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  Speaker 2: let's not forget that this regiment never really saw a battle.
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  Speaker 2: We'll get into more about how it became this kind
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  Speaker 2: of like, you know, optical thing, this bargaining chip. But no,
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  Speaker 2: their rate of pay was very specifically tied to their height.
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  Speaker 1: So if you're 6'1, that guy next to you that's 6'3,
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  Speaker 1: is making bank.
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  Speaker 2: You already know.
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  Speaker 1: You can tell. So despite all these privileges, a lot
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  Speaker 1: of these giants, so-called giants, were very unhappy because they
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  Speaker 1: were reluctant soldiers and their entire lives hinged on the
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: whims of Frederick William. It was like, for comparison, imagine
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: that you are the favorite entourage member of a Saudi
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: prince or something, someone who's literally beyond the law now.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: Sure.
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  Speaker 1: And they say, like, whatever they think is a cool
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: idea at the time, you have to make it happen. And,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: you know, let's say, for instance, Casey, let's say he's
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: in the entourage of a Saudi prince, and they want
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: you to just be on call 24-7 to show up
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  Speaker 1: and just say things in French because they think French
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  Speaker 1: sounds very pleasing to the ear. You would spend the
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: rest of your life never knowing when the phone was
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  Speaker 1: going to ring, never really being able to be too
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  Speaker 1: far away, and never knowing when this guy in charge
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  Speaker 1: would say, you know, pronto, make with the French. That's
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  Speaker 1: what they were doing. Show up and be tall. Whenever
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: the king wants.
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  Speaker 2: But I think it went even further than what we're
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: talking about. Right. I mean, he was so obsessed with
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: the recruiting the tallest of the tall that he like
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: there was word out that, OK, if you're a teacher
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: in Prussia, you're supposed to keep an eye out for
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  Speaker 2: particularly tall children and then just, you know, give them up.
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  Speaker 3: Right. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: To the regiment. Babies even were like marked with a
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: red scarf if they were pregnant. seen by the doctor
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  Speaker 2: as being in a particularly high height and weight percentile
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  Speaker 2: or whatever, you know, and that was the thing. People
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  Speaker 2: sold their children. People sold their children. Frederick William made
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  Speaker 2: it clear to his political allies that they could just
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  Speaker 2: bestow upon him the gift of tall soldiers for his unit.
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  Speaker 1: Bring me a tall child.
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  Speaker 2: Rather than, like, you know, giving him gifts or lands
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: or anything like that.
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: Right. Absolutely.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. myopic about this whole thing um and.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: What hey no what happened if they didn't want to
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: go if these if these tall people.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: I don't imagine anything good no was.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Did uh did he just say did frederick william just
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: say oh well you know i respect your autonomy in
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: your opinion no kings.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: Don't do stuff like that do they no what did
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: they do um he yeah of course if he couldn't
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: legally acquire these uh these larger than average humans he
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: would just have them kidnapped in the night Which is crazy.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: One time he tried to kidnap an Austrian diplomat, which
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: flies in the face of how diplomacy is supposed to work, right?
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is really going into the territory of
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: like fetishism instead of actual kind of like functional tactics,
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: you know, because, again, did never see battle. It was
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: just like for the optics of having a bunch of
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: very tall, you know, super soldier looking men that were
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: at his beck and call.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: It's clearly, if not fetishization, it is an obsession. There's
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: no way around it. He even had people lured to
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: his kingdom under false pretenses, sort of the way that,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: you know, that's an ongoing tragedy in the world today.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: There are thousands and thousands and thousands of people who
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: are trafficked to different countries because they're told they're going
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: to be, you know, domestic workers or they're going to
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: work in construction.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: And the bait and switch happens. Yeah.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: And that's what Frederick William was doing. He had, for instance,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: a guy named James Kirkland who was seven feet and
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: one inch tall, which is huge for this time.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: It's pretty tall now. And he was Irish and, He
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: was given a job as a footman from one Baron Bork,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: who was the Prussian ambassador to London.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Ah, Baron Bork.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Good old Baron Bork. It sounds like that's the brand
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: name of some kind of canned meat product.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: I agree.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: Baron Bork's Boston baked beans.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: Bean bars.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Bean bars?
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm interested.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that job was, of course, a trap.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah. He was sent to this ship. That was moored
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: in Portsmouth, and then he was grabbed, tied up, and gagged,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: and pretty much press ganged into the tall blokes.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: Absolutely insane. You know, the long guys. But they were
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: given some special treatment. You know, they got to eat
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: really well. You know, in terms of, like, their position
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: within the military, they were treated with the utmost care
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: because they were, you know, William's special boys. His special
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: long boys.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: Bring in my long boys.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: But just the— He seems like a real megalomaniacal creep.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: It seems very strange.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, not good.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: It's like something the musician Prince would do. It does.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: It does seem like that. Only, I don't know, Prince,
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: probably Prince would ever take it this far. He might
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: just have like, you know, really tall llamas or something.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: He might have like one long llama.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: Exactly, the long llama. But yeah, a lot of these
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: Potsdam Giants deserted, ran away, or tried to kill themselves.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it seems like a joke now because so much
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: time has passed, but this is a really tough life.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: They were more or less these oddities, this personal circus
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: for the king. This is a true story, folks. If
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: the king was sad, he would, and he's done this
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: more than once, he would assemble 200 to 300 of
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: his giants and have them march around for him. They
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: were preceded by tall people with turbans, playing cymbals and trumpets,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: and an enormous bear that was the mascot of the Giants.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: Oh, goody. Prance for me, my tall boys. Exactly. It
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: is I, Frederick Wilhelm I. You know, like, I'm sorry.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: I just, the guy really sounds like a monster.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: And this happened a lot when he was ill. I
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: can see the scene, right? When he was feeling poorly,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: this mini parade would march through his bedroom. And he
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: would also paint pictures of his favorite giants from memory.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: So it's exactly like you're describing. Well, I picture the
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: doctor saying, you know, your highness, you must have melancholic
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: humors or something. And he's saying, oh, silence the bear.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: Here's the bear.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Watch the bear.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh, goodness.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: So this also goes into eugenics.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: I was about to say, when are we going to
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: get it? When are we going to start dropping the
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: E word?
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: This is the turn. Casey, can we get a things
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: take a dark turn sound?
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, things that were already pretty dark take an even
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: darker turn.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so Frederick William had the means and the motive
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: to create more tall people. So he began to experiment
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: with what we today call eugenics. He paired the tallest
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: of his soldiers with with the tallest women he could
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: find and ordered them to breed. This was somewhat effective.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: As a result, the town was littered with unusually tall
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: men by the end of the 18th century. And that's
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: not all he did. He also tortured these people to
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: make them taller. Well, I mean, to make them taller,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: eye roll city, right? I mean, you're either tall or
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: you ain't. If you're getting stretched on the rack, it's
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: just going to mess up your bones and make you
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: render you ineffective as a soldier entirely. Yeah.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: He would stretch these men on the rack in the
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: hopes of making them taller. It's just another, like, you know,
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: example of how people didn't understand how science worked back
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: in the day. Um, and yeah, they, they, of course
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: people were deserting and attempting suicide. You're not tall enough,
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: you know, or like maybe if I'm only a little taller,
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: he'll like me better and I'll get a little more money. Sure.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: I'll submit myself to be stretched on the rack.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: Or whatever. Exactly. And if anyone attempted to get out
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: of any of this stuff, we talked about how he would,
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: you know, stoop so low as to stage kidnappings. If
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: anyone who was in his company and in his regiment
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: refused any of this stuff, including the rack, they would
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: be killed.
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: The punishment was death. There was no in-between. Probably one
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: of the only upsides of being a soldier in this
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: regiment was that you would never actually be in battle
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: because the king thought you were far too valuable to waste.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: I can't send my tall boys out. Jeez.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: What a lunatic.
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: I know.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Real pill. So we don't know even today whether they
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: had any military value. If you think about it, at
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: the time, being that tall might have been a disadvantage
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: on the battlefield. You're more of a target to hit, right?
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: And Frederick also barely fought any wars during his lifetime
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: in comparison to other monarchs. By the time he died
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: in 1740, he was 51, he had had a total
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: of 2,500 tall blokes and his son, the one we
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, the one we call Frederick the Great.
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: He thought these guys were useless. He probably felt a
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: little bad for him, too.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: Well, Frederick the Great got the name of Frederick the
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: Great because he ended up being a much greater military
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: leader than his father. Yeah, good point.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: It's not ironic.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: No.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: It's not like Little Jot or something.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: No, and he basically, like, conquered a large swath of
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: the area, of the region.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And because he saw this... tall blokes thing
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: as relatively useless he decided that these men were actually
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: soldiers and he would use them as actual soldiers so
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: he sent most of them to active combat units and
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: the pots and giants regiment itself wouldn't be fully dissolved
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: until 1806 but by this point the story was notorious
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: throughout europe everybody knew about this they also knew about
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: the breeding program And this leads us to, you know,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: an even darker turn. We see the consequences of what
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: was an eccentric obsession, possibly a fetish. The Nazi government
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: in Germany, the Nazi regime, had its root. Their attempts
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: to create a so-called Aryan master race had their roots
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: in this Prussian militarism, along with, you know, their own
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: take on Darwinism.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: Even though that was clearly... Frederick William I, that was
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: more responsible for that image, Frederick the Great, becoming a
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: much more successful military leader, kind of got stuck with
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: some of that too. Not saying he was a perfect
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: man or anything, but he has a really interesting backstory
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: because his father, remember the walking stick? He was a
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: notorious crank who would beat up his son with his
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: walking stick, and when he found out that his son
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: had a male lover— He had them both thrown in
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: jail and had the lover executed in front of his son,
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: Frederick the Great. So once his father died, I mean
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: he definitely had an ax to grind. And it seems
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: like he had like a fire in his belly that
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: kind of made him want to really like prove himself.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: And I'm just speculating here a little bit. But he
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: definitely proved to be more effective than his father in
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: terms of conquering.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Right. So he ruled Frederick the Great. Frederick II ruled
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: the kingdom of Prussia from 1740, when his father passed away,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: until 1786. So that's a reign of 46 years. That
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: makes him the longest reigning of any Hohenzollern king. He
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: reorganized the Prussian armies. He was a patron of the
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: arts and the enlightenment. He really earned his name with
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: his success in the Seven Years' War. He was the
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: last monarch titled King in Prussia, and he declared himself
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: King of Prussia. Boom. So he's the reason the name changed.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: He's leading military power, and he was nicknamed Der alte Fritz,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: or the old Fritz by the Prussian people and eventually
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: the rest of Germany. So he did a lot of
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: stuff that his forefathers were unable to do in terms
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: of political and military organization.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: For sure.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: So despite his successes— And he was definitely an imperfect
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: person as well. Frederick the Great was unfairly associated with
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: the Potsdam Giants. You know, they mixed up their Fredericks, right?
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Charles Darwin even refers to the Potsdam Giants, by the way.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: He says, unlike livestock, human beings have never been forcibly
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: bred for select characteristics, quote, except in the well-known case
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: of the Prussian Grenadiers, the Potsdam Giants. Wow. Where are
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: we at now? What is the legacy of these Potsdam Giants?
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: Maybe you're listening to this and you're not completely on
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: the same page as us. Maybe you think, I don't know, guys,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: this sounds pretty cool. I'd like to see that march.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: I love bears and cymbals and trumpets.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: Fun! Well, lucky for you, if you go to langa-caris.de,
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: you can hire Potsdam Giant reenactors to march around your
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: very bedroom. Not sure if that includes a bear, but
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: this is an association in Potsdam, Germany, that tries to
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: kind of carry on the legacy of the tall boys.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: And you can get them to perform this authentic military
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: drill at your family picnic.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: I don't think they have a bear, though. That's one note,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: one difference.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Would this have been a dancing bear? Like, I'm picturing
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: it balancing on a ball, circus style, or would it
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: have just been like a big, lumbering, scary bear?
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: It was probably trained to do some things. Without going
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: too far down the rabbit hole, I would not be
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: surprised if Frederick William maybe had the bear trained to
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: do like rough reenactments of military drills, you know, give
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: it a stick it plays with or something.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: There you go.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: So this concludes our story. Casey, we have to ask.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: Was this, was this worth learning organically? We didn't string
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: you along. Do you feel like you got your time's worth?
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: I absolutely got way more than I bargained for.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: So yeah. Uh, good job. So say we all Casey
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: on the case.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: Casey on the case. And thank you so much for
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: tuning in. We want to hear, remember, we want to
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: hear the weird town names in your neck of the
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: global woods. And, uh, Where do we go with this?
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: I will tell you one thing. When I was originally
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: starting to research this, I just Googled super soldiers or
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: Frederick super soldiers and like that. And a bunch of
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: YouTube videos came up about this notion of are there
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: super soldier Nephilim like angels in the United States military?
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm familiar with that idea as well. It's a
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: little bit out there.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: Oh, it was way out there.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: But you know what? Let us know if you are
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: listening to this episode and you are a Nephilim super soldier,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: either in the U.S. or abroad. We would love to
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: hear your story. Tell us about the great battle for
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: good and evil.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: You can write to us at ridiculous at iheartradio.com. You
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: can hit us up on our Facebook group. That is
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: the Ridiculous Historians. All you have to do is come
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: up with either my name or Ben's name. I really
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: don't understand why people bother writing, I don't know, when
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: they put their responses. I mean, look it up. If
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: you really want to be a member of the group,
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: you could clearly look up mine or Ben's name. It
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: flabbergasted me a little bit. Or, you know, do a
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: clever diversion that like is a reference to the show
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: or just make us laugh.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just make me laugh.
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: Not an exclusive group.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: Also, you know what? I love when people are sending
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: out T-shirt ideas. I'm going to say it. I'm interested
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: in seeing a design for Baron Bork's Boston Baked Bean bars.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: I also really want to do some straight seahorse teeth
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: shirts because I am surprised and amazed and honestly touched.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: That phrase has taken off the way it has. I
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: told you.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: I told you on air. Sometimes you just know when
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: the idea is happening. It's true.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: If you want to check me and Ben out in
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: our personal private time lives, you can hit me up
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: on Instagram at HowNowNoelBrown.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: You can see me get kicked into and out of
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: various airports around the world at Ben Bullen. You can
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: also always, as I said, write to us with some
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: T-shirt ideas and hate. Let us know if you would
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: join the Potsdam Giants. If, you know, it sounds like
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: it's not a bad gig for someone who consented to
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: be in it. Sure, sure. Let us know. Thank you
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: so much to Christopher Haciotis, friend of the show. Of course,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: thank you to Casey Labouche-Pagram for returning from abroad.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: Thanks to our research associate, Gabe Lussier. Thanks to Alex Williams,
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: who composed our theme. And as always, thanks to you, Ben,
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: for Being such a dapper pal and co-host on this
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: here show.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: Likewise, Noel.
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: Likewise.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Hey, Casey, can we get like a little military music
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: to play us out? Everyone pretend to be seven feet tall.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Feels so good.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: See you, folks. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: to your favorite shows.