Notes on the Height of the Old Prussian Soldier - Tactical Background, Requirements and Practice

In the eyes of contemporaries and subsequent generations alike, the image of the Old Prussian army is above all burdened by the intensive “hunt" conducted by recruiting parties for “tall fellows" and the recruiting excesses that resulted at home and abroad. The initiator of this intense search for tall men was King Frederick William I (1713–40). This monarch, often laughed at or even mocked because of his “gigantomania," regarded the recruitment of large men by other princes as a provocation and even risked diplomatic entanglements for his preference for oversized recruits.

It is all the more interesting to examine in detail the motives for the particular attention paid to the factor “height" and the corresponding practice. Even under King Frederick I the height of the soldier had been noted, but only under King Frederick William I did stature, alongside drill proficiency, become an important criterion for the value of a formation and a subject of interest at the annual reviews that concluded the drill period. The minimum measure was prescribed as 5 feet 6 inches ¹. Frederick William I fixed the minimum requirement for the 2nd rank at 6 inches, whereas the 1st rank “in a poor infantry company, which can still pass" was not to have men under 9 inches; the requirements for the fusilier regiments formed since 1723 as well as for the grenadiers (5 inches) were somewhat lower ². In 1733, in the army of 61 battalions (excluding No. 6) there were only 1,957 soldiers who were under 5 feet 6 inches tall. The Alt-Anhalt (No. 3) and Prinz Leopold (No. 27) regiments even had no soldiers under 7 inches at all.

Under Frederick the Great the body measure retained its importance as a quality characteristic, however he ordered on 24 June 1740 that it “should no longer matter so much for the flank men." Recruits for the fusilier regiments newly established from 1740 were not to be taller than 6–7 inches, with 5 1/2 inches set as the minimum. In his political testament of 1752 the king demanded: “In the old infantry regiments we did not want a man in the first rank under 5 feet 8 inches and in the second under 6 inches, properly measured. The regiments I have created have in all ranks one inch less than the old ones, but those from Silesia somewhat approximate the old corps" ³ and he repeated this directive in 1768: “I would like the old regiments to end at six inches and the new ones not to go below five inches" ⁴.

The losses of the Seven Years' War and the inferior, in part very young replacements of the last war years ⁵ caused a decline in the size level, as the comparison of the measurements in the above table from the years 1756 and 1762 (No. 19) and 1764 (No. 18) shows. Thus, in the army there was a general effort to raise the average height of the soldiers again during the reorganization after the peace at Hubertusburg in 1763. As a result of these efforts Frederick the Great was able to note: “... the army (gained) in height from year to year and in 1773 there was no longer an infantry company whose soldiers measured under 5 feet 5 inches."

The cavalry had to “employ similarly large men" under Frederick William I (Seckendorf to Prince Eugene, 1725); again and again King Frederick William I emphasized that “the captains must recruit better." The regulations for the cuirassiers and dragoons of 1743 were limited to the command not to recruit men under 6 inches; the regiments, however, were merely to replace their losses and not increase in size ⁶.

Later a minimum of 5 inches and a maximum of 8 inches were fixed for the cavalry. For the hussars physical height was unimportant, “... but one must consider the age and must not tolerate children in the regiments" ⁷. The minimum requirements for new recruits for the artillery were set at 4 inches; men of 11 inches and more were not to be recruited. According to the regulation for foreign recruitment of 1 Feb. 1787 the size should not be under 5 feet 5 inches, exceptionally 4 inches, fusiliers and hussars 5 feet 3 inches. In the cavalry the size of the soldiers should not exceed 9 inches, for the hussars 7 inches.

According to the Infantry Regulation of 1743 the officers should endeavor to “recruit 8-, 9- and 10-inch men" ⁸. Bounties were scaled according to the applicants' body height and reached immense sums for a recruit of the royal coat when courted by the recruiting officers. Frederick the Great, however, set a binding upper limit for the bounties because in the competition for “capable and good people" individual regiments sometimes outbid one another. The regiments had to annually hand over tall recruits to the guard units (No. 6 and later No. 15 I, II/III), costs being reimbursed. Recruits for the guard were not to be under 9 inches tall. From the coercive situation arising from the annual inspection by the king or the general inspector, where “good regiments" and “good companies with men in good order" were to be displayed, resulted the persistence of the notorious excesses in foreign recruitment. Even though the provisions of the regulation obliged company holders to recruit “handsome men without complaints and violence with good manner," there was on the other side an almost existential performance pressure - and the regulation left no doubt about this: “When the ... colonels present good regiments and the companies with men in good order: Then they will recommend themselves most to His Majesty the King! On the contrary those who have bad regiments and companies will recommend themselves in the worst way. The chiefs and commanders of the regiments shall urge the captains to keep their companies always in good condition and, when in a company incapable men are, such must be discharged and in their place other capable men recruited. Especially the chiefs and commanders of the regiments must urge those captains who have poor companies to endeavor to improve their companies from year to year as much as possible" ⁹.

“In the spring, as soon as the furloughed men had returned" the soldiers were measured taking into account new recruits and “ranked by the regimental chief on a leveling board in a rank from right to left, by shoulders and heads." The individual companies were always to be “ranked" and copies of the corresponding ranking rolls had to be kept by the company commander, regimental chief, regimental commander and the majors. The ranked members of a company formed three ranks, whereby “the tallest ... were placed in the 1st rank, the following in the 3rd rank, and the smallest in the 2nd rank" ¹⁰. From the evaluation of the individual ranking rolls the values for the measurement lists to be submitted were derived.

Since 1730 regiments had to submit exact measurement lists annually and the development of the size level was closely monitored. On 6 July 1730 Frederick William I wrote to the regimental commander of the “von Ludwig's Regiment" (No. 7): “My dear Major General. I send you herewith a sealed measure. Thereafter you shall have every soldier of the regiment measured, without shoes, and the fellow must stand on a straight board, and keep his feet close together. According to the found measure you shall thus send me on the first of September this year a dutiful list of the exact size of the men, as the attached schema reads, and this list shall be written in just such a small book that on each page a company will be listed; and you shall also attest the same on the back with your signature and seal, and must dutifully respond to me beforehand. The measures shall be kept with the regiment and always measured according to them. I am your well-affectioned King Frederick William" ¹¹.

One learns similar things in an order to the later General Field Marshal Friedrich Leopold Count von Geßler: “I want you now immediately to send me the measurement list of the regiment's size, and indeed according to My regulated measure, measured barefoot, in the form of a small booklet" ¹². If the picture shown by the “ranking roll" to be submitted was unsatisfactory, the royal reply from Potsdam was prompt; thus King Frederick William I wrote on 3 May 1731 “to Colonel von Plotho of the Ludwig's Regiment" (No. 7): “My dear Colonel von Plotho, I have received the ranking roll of the Ludwig's Regiment sent by you, and find therein that there are companies which in the first ranks are mostly 9-inch men but few or no 11-inch fellows. Therefore in the first ranks 11-inch men and above as well as good flank men should be recruited and the first ranks must all be at least of 11, 9, and 10-inch people. The Lieutenant Colonel von Mylen and Captain Kappel still have such small men; therefore they must strive (make efforts) to bring the company into better shape ..." ¹³. When the regiment No. 29 was granted to General Lieutenant Georg Friedrich Heinrich von Borcke (1723–40 Wesel, later Breslau), the king coupled this with the exhortation: “I have confidence in you that you will not only keep this regiment in good order, but will also be diligent in improving it more and more" (letter of 23 May 1736), but a few years later had cause for criticism: “... shall urge the company chiefs to recruit better, as they have few or no flank men, also still many 8-inchers in the first rank, therefore they must all strive to do better and recruit more men of 6 feet, also 11 inches, It is already mostly a year after the review, therefore the captains must work diligently to bring the flanks into order ..." ¹⁴.

King Frederick the Great also directed his attention to the “measure" of the troops and could become quite harsh in tone in the case of an unsatisfactory result: “If you now wish to keep me as a friend, you must now take care that the regiment soon return to good order; if this does not happen, we will be angered" (letter from 1742 to the aforementioned General Lieutenant von Borcke). When the same asked for his dismissal, the king replied the same year: “I have received your letter of the 24th of this month, in which you requested your dismissal. Such may be granted you without reluctance. But you must first restore your regiment to good order and recruit what is necessary for that. Whereupon you will immediately receive the leave. For to ruin the regiment and then to go away is no art" (letter of 30 July 1742) ¹⁵.

The factor height played a decisive role not only in the recruitment of foreigners (influencing the amount of the bounty), but the special status of physical growth as a measure of suitability also determined the further career of those enrolled within the framework of the cantonal conscription replacement system. The height of the enrolled decided, in conjunction with the needs of the locally responsible regiment, whether the conscript was taken on or not. Keeping a canton roll that documented names and height exactly was mandatory, “so that those who have the required size may be more easily drawn up by the regiments, and conversely so many smaller people may be released ... " ¹⁶. Enrolled persons who had reached their 24th year but had not reached the minimum measure and showed no promise of further growth were to be dismissed as unfit ¹⁷. This group, which under peacetime conditions was not drafted, could nevertheless under certain circumstances (in the case of mobilization) be obliged as teamsters, provision or wagon servants. According to the resolution of 15 Sept. 1733 these discharged men or “in their absence men of 5 feet or at most 3–4 inches" should be used ¹⁷. The canton system officially introduced in 1733/35 was a general conscription with (numerous) exemptions and was supplemented until 1806 by foreign recruitment. Exemption from the canton duty always found its limit where considerable growth in the eyes of the military made the exempted particularly attractive for military service.

A few examples will suffice: for the benefit of the primarily agrarian economy “all those exempted who are settled with house and farm in the countryside, as well as their individual sons," however with the proviso: “unless they are 5 feet 10 inches tall" ¹⁸. Furthermore it was determined that of several sons of a farmer not the eldest, but the smallest (!) should take over the farm, the others should become soldiers ¹⁹. If a civil authority claimed a cantonist about to be taken on as indispensable, the dismissal of small men was generally unproblematic, for large men the circumstances had to be investigated more closely ²⁰. Skilled hunters, actually reserved for the field hunter corps, fell to the canton if they measured over 6 inches ²¹. By royal order of 14 Oct. 1737 theology students belonged to the occupational groups exempt from the canton duty, but if they reached a physical length of 5 feet 9 inches and above, they returned to service obligation ²². To support the nascent domestic economy, entire groups of workers were early on exempted, but there too workers who exceeded a certain body size were excluded from the protective provisions ²³. The merchants of Magdeburg were exceptionally allowed to employ even already enrolled men as apprentices, provided they were not larger than 5 feet 4 inches and further growth was not to be expected. Body height was likewise an essential criterion for the discharge of already enlisted members of important professions (professionals) into civilian life ²⁴.

Height also determined the social status of those obliged to the canton. Those who did not reach 5 feet 3 inches remained subject to their local patrimonial and not the military jurisdiction, which had significant socio-legal consequences for those affected and amounted to a diminution of their social position ²⁵. Moreover, the regiments were to endeavor in any case to discharge all already enlisted soldiers under 3 inches as soon as possible and replace them with larger recruits. The overemphasis on physical growth as a quality marker even influenced military penal practice, for “if once a serviceable large fellow threatened to be dismissed from the service through his own fault, he could be sure of being dealt with leniently because of his height, even for serious offenses" ²⁶.

About the historical origin of the “gigantomania" we read in the memoirs of General von Pfau: “... the margrave Philipp and field marshal in the army was the first who sought large men as soldiers and demanded to have them in his regiment, the crown prince (Frederick William I) and Prince Leopold imitated him, and this spread to the other chiefs, to take only large men into service as soldiers" ²⁷. The motive for the often misunderstood, ridiculed or condemned intensive search for “tall fellows" was tactical: the longer the flintlock musket (fusil) was, the greater its effective range. This, however, required large soldiers with corresponding arm span. Seasoned contemporaries were aware of this pivotal point of Old Prussian superiority on the field: “The reason why the Prussians take large men for the infantry is not only the impressive appearance, but also because they believe that a tall man reloads faster than a short one" ²⁸. But it was only through tireless drill that the firing speed was increased to three shots per minute and with the longer rifle an effective opening of fire was possible already at a distance of 200 m.

Economic strength and population size of the Old Prussian state set limits to army strength, so that special quality had to replace lacking quantity, and the success of the Old Prussian infantry under the command of Field Marshal Curt Christoph Count von Schwerin (1684–1757) at the engagement at Mollwitz (10 April 1741) confirmed the work of the army creator Frederick William I and his confidant and advisor Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau (1676–1747). In his Political Testament of 1752 Frederick the Great adduces another argument for the particular importance of height when recruiting replacement men: “This great stature is necessary; the men who have it are stronger than the others, and no troops in the world could resist them when they attack with fixed bayonets" ²⁹.

The exaggerated preference for large soldiers was already viewed critically by knowledgeable military men of the time. Thus the later disgraced General Lieutenant Friedrich August von Fink, in his “Thoughts on Military Matters" (1788), warned against recruiting men who were too small but also too large: “Those who are six feet and more, because of their own size and heaviness, cannot endure the hardships of the campaign, especially on hard marches they soon become unfit, and are thus more for parade than for use; whereas those under six inches are too weak and not able to carry the proper field equipment." He considered ideal infantry size to be men of 5 feet 6–10 inches. Cavalrymen should be 5 feet 6–9 inches tall because “very heavy men press the horses down a lot." In his “Memoirs" Lossow also comments on this topic: “It is known that then and until 1806 much attention was paid to the size of the men, and the mistakes that had to arise from this are known. If it is incorrect to believe that only a tall person can be a useful soldier, it is nevertheless established that to endure great fatigues a certain physical size and strength as well as a certain age is necessary, and are preferably to be considered as useful ... " ³⁰.

Streit ³¹ confirms in the “Military Encyclopedia" published in 1800 the fundamental importance of height for the handling of the flintlock musket and therefore demands a minimum size of recruits of 3–4 inches, “the heavy infantry therefore only in extreme necessity recruits 3-inch men, very reluctantly 4-inch, usually they go out with 5 inches and upwards, as large as they can get men". In his opinion the grenadiers, cuirassiers and dragoons should consist of soldiers of medium height of 5 to 8 inches, while for the light infantry and cavalry (hussars and Bosniaks) he considered “young, quick people of 3 to 5 inches ... most useful" (minimum size for fusiliers: 2 1/2 inches). Regarding personnel for the artillery, Streit emphatically contradicts the prejudice that short recruits are sufficient for the artillery; instead he demands replacements that are fundamentally 4–7 inches tall (minimum size for artillerymen: 4 inches) and due to the physical demands in this arm even “a small part should consist of men of 7–10 inches".

Against this background the importance of the factor height becomes apparent, and the precise control of regimental size levels and the constant royal admonitions to improve the “measure balance" become understandable; after all, this was not the whim of two rulers, but the quintessence of the Old Prussian army, namely its striking power and thus the question of existence or non-existence of the artificial construct “Prussia".