The Prussian Army under Frederick William I (1713–40) - "The Tall Lads" - on the History of the Famous Guard Regiment

Besides No. 3, the King's Regiment (No. 6) was the second infantry unit with an increased establishment. Even before the standing armies were formed, princes raised special formations for the protection of their person, some of which as early as the 16th and 17th centuries wore uniform dress and, above all, displayed splendid clothing; examples include the Swiss Guard of the Papal States (established 1506), the Royal Bodyguard (Trabant Guard) in England (established 1485), the Royal Noble Guard in Spain (established 1646) and the Royal Musketeer Corps in France (established 1622). The designation ‘guard’ became generally customary for these body and protective guards (Fr. garde = to protect, guard, watch).

In Prussia there were also guard troops: among the army left by King Frederick I (about 40,000 men in total) were various guard formations, namely the Grenadier Guard (1,223 men, Major General v. Gersdorf), the Fusilier Guard (2,136 men, Field Marshal Count v. Wartensleben), the Foot Life Regiment (1,406 men, Lieutenant General v. Arnim), the Swiss Guard (124 men), the Garde du Corps (312 men), formerly the Trabant Guard on horseback (Lieutenant General v. Tettau), the Grands-Mousquetaires (from 1691 Gensdarmes) or the Gensdarmes (98 men, Lieutenant General v. Natzmer), the Life Regiment on Horseback (483 men, Major General v. Hackeborn) and the Life Regiment Dragoons (646 men, Lieutenant General v. Wreech)¹.

Under Frederick William I the costly household troops established on the French model were dissolved. The Swiss Guard was to be discharged from their oath on 02.05.1914, their back pay settled and the soldiers then dismissed. This clearly contradicted the capitulation concluded with the Swiss canton of Bern, but the king ordered: "It is my will, without reasoning"². The Fusilier Guard was distributed among the field regiments, whereby the formerly privileged units were naturally not pleased by this fate: "In the morning at 5 o'clock the King nonetheless inspected there the Swedish prisoners, who after long resistance had been persuaded to take service, and thereafter gave to Major General von Gersdorff as an establishment a second battalion, since one battalion, the so-called castle grenadiers, which alone had performed the guard at the castle for some years and had much precedence in pay and rank over others, was set on the footing of a field regiment, to their great mortification, and the said Major General von Gersdorff, who had always commanded that battalion, was allowed to form another one to it, to which new colours were given on the 29th at the review in the Tiergarten and which is now named the Gersdorff Regiment. The lads are quite displeased and when at the review in the presence of the King they took off their grenadier caps and received hats instead, some with violence, words of complaint and heavy curses threw them to the ground, because they were not only at once deprived of all prerogatives, but also immediately transferred from this residence to the small towns in the countryside. They were always called the castle cavaliers, since they were such imposing and provided with proper uniform men, as they were all chosen from the Prussian and local guards. In marching through this town the officers had enough to do to appease them, since they said that everyone laughed at them and pointed at them with fingers, upon which the officers answered that because the matter was new, one must allow this to the people; it will soon pass from their minds"³.

Characteristic for Prussia since the time of the Soldier King was that the guards served less for security and ceremonial duty and more as excellent field troops and became model troops. The only exception in this regard was (later) the Guard Non-Commissioned Officers’ Company established by the AKO of 30.03.1829, which served as a castle guard in Potsdam and was rather a provision unit for deserving non-commissioned officers.

As genuine guard troops under Frederick William I the so-called King's Regiment (No. 6) and the cavalry regiment K 10 were considered. The King's Regiment comprised 3 battalions and in 1723 counted a total of 2,773 men (Life Battalion, 2nd and 3rd battalion and unrated men). It was to go down in history as the Potsdam Giant Guard or the Tall Lads. The true origin of the Potsdam Giant Guard is to be found in the military activities of the Crown Prince in Wusterhausen. The domain of Wusterhausen had been given to the Crown Prince by his father as a gift in 1698, and here Frederick William ruled as in a state within a state, albeit on a much reduced scale. The Crown Prince attended to small administrative matters, estate affairs, fishing and timber uses, peasant dues, etc.; overall a functioning economic estate arose in Wusterhausen under the aegis of the Crown Prince. Hinrichs not only described Wusterhausen as the seedbed of the future government outside the cabinet and as the starting point of domain administration, but also states that from there the Crown Prince’s military activity began: "The young Frederick William was not content with his official Berlin cadet company. He early began in Wusterhausen to arrange and exercise his hunting servants and beaters militarily in rank and file. From an arsenal for which his much-admired uncle Margrave Philipp Wilhelm gifted him mortars, old guns and uniforms, he must have armed and clothed this band. This small guard is said to have grown over time to 30 men, arranged in three ranks; the first rank received grenadier caps, the two other ranks fusilier hats. Margrave Philipp Wilhelm not only supplied him with equipment items, but apparently also directed him to a preference for especially tall soldiers. According to the recollections of Raumer, the secretary of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau, Philipp Wilhelm had in the years 1701 to 1703 in his regiment a captain named Mühlen, who consolidated the grenadiers previously distributed among the individual companies into a single company to create a militarily handsome impression. For the grenadiers, originally grenade-throwers, were elite soldiers used for vigorous actions where it was dangerous, shock troops, chosen to be young, handsome, strong, hardy, compact men, who did not look effeminate but fearsome, with dark-brown faces, black hair, with a strong moustache, not easily laughing or appearing amiable. The impression of these tall men was increased by the high, pointed grenadier cap they wore instead of the hat of musketeers and fusiliers."

The men of this large grenadier company in Margrave Philipp Wilhelm’s regiment, all of the greatest and most uniform figure, drilled and trained as they were by the tireless care of their captain, were the object of joy and admiration for all who saw them. This taste became fashionable in the following years, and Prince Leopold was the first to imitate it: For the grenadiers the largest men were chosen from all regiments, and if they were not found there they were sought elsewhere"⁴. The Crown Prince adopted this military fashion and from 1707 supplemented his hunting company with regular soldiers, who were often sons and farmhands of his estate tenants. Over time an elite military formation thus emerged that matched his military taste and that of the so-called grenadier fathers in a special way. After the dissolution of the previous grenadier guard, in 1714 only one battalion, the so-called white grenadiers, was retained; these together with the so-called Red or Great Life Battalion grenadiers that had evolved from the aforementioned Wusterhausen hunting company and with the former Regiment Kronprinz formed the new King's Regiment (No. 6). In the Berlin printed newspapers (1713–17, 35, p. 550) it is recorded under: "The project of combining the large life grenadiers with the Royal Life Regiment, which was made more than two months ago, is now fully resolved, namely that from both a Royal Life Regiment shall be formed, which shall consist of 4 battalions, among which the two large ones shall keep their precedence as before." The designation Red Life Battalion Grenadiers for the I. Battalion of the King's Regiment can be proven for the first time on 14.06.1713.

The other component of the Potsdam Giant Guard was — as mentioned — the former crown-prince’s regiment. It was taken into electoral Brandenburgian service on 10.06.1675 as the Kurprinz Regiment and had been raised after the Swedish incursion into the Margraviate of Brandenburg from the territorial levy established by the order of 11.11.1674. It was initially organized into 2 battalions of a total of 8 companies; garrisons in 1688 were Rathenow, Lenzen, Ruppin, Perleberg, Pritzwalk, Kyritz, Havelberg, Wusterhausen, Gransee, Wittstock, Templin, Tangermünde, Osterburg, Werben, Arneburg, Bismark and Kalbe. The regiment’s chief was 1675–1688 Crown Prince Frederick (later King Frederick I), then from 04.08.1688 Crown Prince Frederick William (later King Frederick William I). In 1685 the regiment transferred 2 companies to Infantry Regiment No. 12. The strength of the Kurprinz Regiment developed over time as follows: 1675: 1,200 men; 1683: 1,655 men; 1688: 1,148 men; 1683: 1,422 men. From 18.01.1701 the unit was called Regiment Kronprinz and counted 1,147 men that year. In 1702 two companies were given to the Dutch battalions; in 1713 the 3rd battalion was transferred to Infantry Regiment No. 22. From 25.02.1713 the unit became the King's Regiment and was then stationed in Potsdam and Brandenburg, from 1733 only in Potsdam. The fact that the previous king retained his former infantry regiment contradicted tradition, since usually the new heir assumed proprietorship. The king could not part with his regiment and ordered: "King's Regiment is now under my regiment"⁵. The Potsdam Giant Guard thus subsequently consisted on the one hand of the Red Life Battalion Grenadiers and on the other hand of the II. and III. battalions of the King's Regiment.

The Red Grenadiers numbered in July 1713: 703 men, the remaining King's Regiment in June 1713: 1,406 men. In 1723 the 5 companies of the Life Battalion comprised 943 men, the II. and III. battalions: 1,657 men, plus 173 unrated men, together therefore: 2,773 men. In 1739 the establishment of the 18 companies of the so-called "Potsdam Giant Guard" was likewise 2,773 men, but 751 unrated men were added, making a total of 3,484 men⁶. The provisions costs for the King's Regiment in 1723 are given as 181,364 thalers plus 25,000 thalers for clothing money. In 1739 they amount to 213,476 thalers plus 36,000 thalers clothing money. For an ordinary infantry regiment the provisions costs, by contrast, were only 72,636 thalers. The monthly calculation yields the following picture: the provisions appropriation of No. 6 amounted to 24,270 thalers, 16 groschen; for an ordinary infantry regiment only 6,069 thalers, 11 groschen, 6 pfennigs were estimated monthly⁷.

However, the financing of the exclusive unit did not come from the ordinary army budget; the King had stipulated: "The (2nd battalion) Guard Grenadiers shall be maintained from my menus plaisirs (note: small spending money), because I find no pleasure in the world except in a good army"⁸.

Commander of the King's Regiment was initially Colonel Dietrich Johann v. d. v. Heyden gen. Rynsch. Heyden had entered electoral Brandenburgian service in 1681, since 1682 ensign of the Life Guard on Foot (No. 1) and rose in that regiment to lieutenant colonel. On 07.03.1713 he transferred as colonel to the then regiment of the Crown Prince (No. 6). He died in 1729 as major general and governor of Küstrin. In the period from 1713 to 1730/31 Colonel Georg Volrat v. Kröcher commanded the II. and III. battalions of No. 6. Kröcher had already been with this unit since 1694, but in the interim (from 1709) was captain and company owner in No. 12. From 14.04.1717 he became the king’s adjutant general, but retained his commander post. In 1731 he became chief of the Infantry Regiment v. Gersdorff; he died in 1742 as lieutenant general and governor of Geldern. From 1730 the later field marshal v. Kleist commanded the Red Life Battalion Grenadiers; he was succeeded in 1735 by Colonel v. Einsiedel (died 1745 as lieutenant general, see person below). The 2nd and 3rd battalions of the King's Regiment were commanded from 01.11.1730 by Colonel Hans Jürgen Detloff v. Massow (1686, died 1761 as lieutenant general, see person below) and from 1738 by Colonel Hann v. Weyher. From 01.02.1737 v. Massow commanded all 3 battalions of No. 6.

The regiment replenished itself by recruiting at home and abroad and was distinguished by especially tall soldiers. Fabulous recruiting bounties were paid for tall recruits and Frederick William I left no stone unturned to improve the stature of the regiment. Carsted reports about this unit: "His regiment consisted of 3 battalions and was called King's Regiment and received, in place of the 8th grade, once again as many, namely 16th grade for the five-day pay. It consisted of extraordinarily large men who were sought throughout the world. He had princes and counts and barons and noblemen under the same as common soldiers and kept them if they were extraordinarily tall. Under 6 feet there was no musketeer. An Italian prince had himself, without revealing his identity on his travels, enlisted by a Prussian recruiter into this regiment, merely out of curiosity, to create in imagination a great astonishment when he would reveal himself after a short time. But he found that more people of high and lofty station wore the musket here, and that it was not so easy to get in as he had thought. Yet when he was exposed by an ambassador whom he himself, since the government of his states pleased him, had sent, he was recognised with pleasure and dismissed with joy, because he replaced his position with various tall men that his envoy had brought. The younger son of the former first minister, Mr von Prinzen, did not succeed in getting away. As long as the King lived, he carried the musket.... Besides the 3 battalions he also had a nursery of tall men, these were called the blue coats. Their number amounted to over 600, they were almost all trained in weapons, but did not yet wear a sidearm. From them the losses were replaced that the 3 battalions suffered by deaths. The Lord was never more displeased than when he received the news that a tall fellow had died on him. They were for the most part all painted life-size by the life company, and with that a special gallery was occupied in the Potsdam castle"⁹.

Beneckendorf adds in his "Character Sketches from the Life of King Frederick William I ...": Frederick William I’s special inclination and passion for the size of the war men manifested itself particularly in the example of his life regiment, or the so-called Potsdam grenadiers. It thus became one of the most splendid spectacles whose imitation would have been impossible for all other potentates, but which cost this monarch very large sums. From the beauty of this corps, which was not only derived from the facial formation of its men but mainly from their extraordinary and consistently uniform stature, a complete idea is very difficult to obtain by mere description if one has not seen it with one’s own eyes. On Frederick William I’s funeral day in Potsdam I had the opportunity to see it some hours earlier, before it was in consequence of Frederick II’s decision distributed and thereby unexpectedly took on another appearance; and I will relate that which I still recall at the sight of it in a few words. This corps actually had four distinct divisions. Three of them comprised the old men made up of three battalions, the fourth, however, was a nursery of newly enlisted recruits, who bore the name of unrated or also blue coats because they were not yet clothed but wore only a plain blue linen coat. The first and second battalions, which had their garrison in Potsdam and were therefore almost constantly about the King, had indeed a noticeable advantage over the third, whose peacetime quarters were destined to be the town of Brandenburg, in respect both of size and beauty of men; meanwhile the latter also contributed much to the perfection of the whole when they were together. The largest and most imposing men that the monarch obtained during recruiting of this regiment were mainly incorporated into the first and second battalions, but especially into the first. As imposing as these three battalions were, they were always greatly surpassed by the considerable number of recruits or unrated men kept in reserve to replace those leaving the same. Not only in terms of their youth but also their size and beauty they particularly distinguished themselves, and they lost nothing by their missing uniform. This corps of the unrated also amounted to four to five hundred men; they were likewise exercised daily like the old battalions and practised in arms. Undoubtedly it cost Frederick William I the most trouble to form the first nucleus of this rare regiment; since his own lands were not sufficient, he had to search for them almost in all parts of the world"¹⁰.

Frederick William I received Russian soldiers (so-called Muscovites) as gifts from Czar Peter the Great several times, according to preserved clothing accounts already in 1713¹¹. In 1739 eleven tall Turks arrived in Potsdam.

Additionally, the unit was supplemented by drafts from the other field regiments. The regimental chiefs or commanders and the company owners were to take particular care during recruiting to secure especially tall men with a view to the later transfer of the recruits to the "Potsdam Giant Guard." The order of 13.09.1732 states on this: "The chiefs and commanders of the regiments, as well as the captains, shall take all pains and ensure to recruit each year handsome men of 6 feet and above, who can be transferred into His Royal Majesty's regiment, and they must not spare for this, because His Royal Majesty will have everything they incur as advance and other expenses properly paid to them. Therefore the staff officers and captains need nothing else than the advance; but since this advance is often large, as one fellow costs 600, 700 and more thalers, this money shall, as soon as the fellow is recruited and the captain has submitted the accounting, be advanced from the clothing chest and the fellow shall remain with the company of the officer who recruited him. Therefore this cannot hinder the captains in their own recruiting, because a captain, when he has recruited a 6-foot fellow, receives this money with all expenses immediately from the clothing chest as an advance, and can immediately employ it again for recruitment of other men in front of his company. But as soon as His Royal Majesty takes such a tall fellow into His regiment and pays him again, the money must be placed back into the clothing chest, for which the chief and commander of the regiment shall be responsible"¹². At the same time the King assured the staff officers and captains "who will distinguish themselves by tall men of 6 feet and above, that they will on all occasions really bestow upon them their royal favour." The King recorded in 1731 a "list of those people taken by His Majesty in the camp at Wehlau from the regiments, and what they received in bounty." The list contains 63 soldiers (from 11 regiments) selected for No. 6, whose bounties range between 1 and 1000 thalers. The sums personally advanced by the King to be reimbursed were mostly considerably higher than these amounts. For 3 recruits in 1737 taken by Frederick William I for No. 6 from other units, the total of bounty, transport and other costs came to 9,633 thalers, 8 groschen, including 1,500 thalers to a monastery "for the purchase of his (the recruit's) subjection, because it would not let the recruit leave without this." In a royal letter of 25.07.1738 to Major General Count v. Dohna it says: "My dear Major General Count v. Dohna! Since I will have the recruits taken by your regiment at the review paid once I return to Berlin: I command that you in the meantime make all arrangements so that the captains in place of the men I have taken recruit equally good and even better men again.." and adds: "In particular the worst companies must improve greatly, likewise in the grenadier companies, in the place of those who do not measure 6 inches(?) better ones are to be procured. Otherwise I command you that your regiment shall not recruit a Frenchman, unless such a fellow really has 10 inches. But what measures under 10 inches, if it is a Frenchman, should not be recruited." It concerned 20 soldiers for a total of 12,664 thalers¹³. Enormous sums were spent on recruiting individual — particularly tall — recruits. A letter from the Prussian envoy in Great Britain to the King of 10.03.1734 reports the circumstances of such a case: "Most Serene, Most Mighty King! Most Gracious King and Lord! I live in the firm confidence that the fellow departing from here, named James Kirkland, an Irishman by birth and about 20 years old, whom the bassist Korrowsky brings, will arrive safely and find Your Royal Majesty's most gracious approbation..."

Frederick William I’s special relationship to his "tall lads" is also evident from the following provisions in the will of 01.07.1714: "The battalion of the red grenadiers, which has been our pleasure, shall be left to Our dearly beloved consort at the current large pay and on the same footing as We have set it so long as Our son the Crown and Electoral Prince shall not yet be of age, who shall then keep the same further in memory of Us and for love of Us. And since We well considered that to maintain this battalion in such a selected manning as it is at present is exceedingly difficult, We wish that all Our army contribute to its recruitment; therefore we specially give power to our Lieutenant General Count von Finkenstein and our Major General von Borck and bind them on their oath and conscience that they choose from all our regiments, dragoons, cuirassiers and infantry the largest and those that correspond to the test, who then must also be unhesitatingly transferred for the maintenance of this battalion of handsome men ..."¹⁴. When members of the guard unit died, contemporary reports say it affected the King deeply: "During the King's present twelve-day stay in Potsdam one of the large grenadiers has again died; at whose burial the King stood nearby and viewed the ceremonies and even commanded the firing of salvos, it is even said that he followed the corpse"¹⁵.

The members of the Potsdam Giant Guard were not only distinguished by particular uniform features and higher pay or allowances, but were also entitled to a number of privileges, e.g. freedom to pursue a trade in the city of Potsdam. Thus they were allowed in Potsdam to engage in a trade, keep taverns, beer and wine houses, hawking and trade in groceries, material and Italian goods¹⁶. The enjoyment and sale of alcohol was, however, forbidden for disciplinary reasons: "It is also seriously ordered that each captain in his district shall diligently ensure that neither among the citizens nor the grenadiers any brandy is given, and the citizens shall be warned that if brandy is found among them, the first time he shall be put into the cart to Spandau, and the woman into the spinning house; the second time punished with the staff broom and brand mark, and the third time he shall be hanged on the gallows. The captains shall also have the boys on parade frisked, and if one is found to have drunk brandy he shall be sharply handled and report where he got the brandy. The grenadier at whom brandy is found shall be punished with the pike rod and his wife taken to the spinning house" (royal order of 08.02.1738)¹⁷. A particular problem arose from grenadiers accepting petitions from citizens and passing the petitions on to the King. They handed the petitions to the King in the Lustgarten or on the way to the guard parade and could often count on Frederick William I’s sympathies. The grenadiers charged the petitioner for these services. Since this phenomenon escalated over time, Adam v. Weyher received the following order on 27.09.1731: "You shall publicly proclaim at the parole that if a non-commissioned officer or grenadier presumes to accept and deliver a memorial, that it is none of his concern whether it is from Christians or Jews, he shall run the gauntlet 30 times through 200 men in the street, because I absolutely will no longer permit such procuring and the one who gives a memorial to a non-commissioned officer or grenadier, whether procurator or advocate, or the matter concerns him personally, whether of high or low rank, shall for life be put into the cart to Spandau...."¹⁸. Since Frederick the Great had to repeat the prohibition on 02.05.1740, the measures on this matter under the Soldier King seem to have had little effect.

Despite the numerous privileges contemporary sources repeatedly report expressions of displeasure among the grenadiers, which partly manifested in conspiracies, excesses or desertions.

After the change of government in 1740 the regiment was dissolved, but remnants remained as a Guard Grenadier Battalion to preserve the tradition. According to the cabinet notification of 07.02.1743 the unit was called Einsiedel’s Grenadier Battalion or Einsiedel’s Battalion Grenadier-Guard and then — until 1801 — named after its respective chief¹⁹. The Grenadier Guard Battalion was dissolved by capitulation at Erfurt and Prenzlau on 16.10. and 28.10.1806, remnants (especially ranzionierte) formed the nucleus and depot for the new guard and finally, with remnants of No. 15, the 1st Guard Regiment on Foot.