The Monarch Who Got His Government to Breed Giant Soldiers
Frederick William I (1688 – 1740) was Prussia’s king from 1713 until his death in 1740. The country he inherited was a backwards and second rate power. An ascetic, he rejected the frippery of the glamorous court in which he was raised, and dedicated himself to the enhancement of Prussia’s stature. He eventually transformed his country into an efficiently well-run and prosperous state. His son and successor Frederick II the Great built on that, and catapulted Prussia into the ranks of Europe’s major military powers. Frederick William was fascinated with the military, and he assiduously sought to enhance Prussia’s armed might. So much so that he was nicknamed Soldatenkonig, or the “Soldier King”.
When Frederick William was crowned, Prussia had 38,000 soldiers, supported mostly by foreign subsidies. By the time he died in 1740, the army had grown to 83,000 out of a population of 2.2 million. Prussia was financially independent, and had become Europe’s third military power, behind France and Russia. It was a big army for such a small kingdom, and gave rise to a quip that Prussia was not a country with an army, but an army with a country. Frederick William’s fixation on the military took him in weird directions at times, such as his lifelong quest for super soldiers. He collected giant soldiers, and tried to breed giants for his army.