The Potsdam Giants was the name given to Prussian infantry regiment No 6. The regiment was composed of taller-than-average soldiers, and was founded in It was eventually dissolved in , after the Prussians were defeated by Napoleon. Throughout the reign of the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia β , 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 fellows".
After Frederick William I ascended to the throne in , he proceeded to strengthen his military, including hiring 40, 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 Prussian feet about 6 ft 2 in or 1. The king was about 1. 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.
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 gaiters. One of the tallest soldiers, the Irishman James Kirkland , was reportedly 2. When the king died in , the regiment consisted of 3, men.
