He created an elite regiment of exceptionally tall soldiers known as the Potsdam Giants or Lange Kerls (“Tall Fellows”), and he went to absurd lengths to fill their ranks.

Any man over six feet tall was fair game. The king paid other rulers for tall recruits, sent agents across Europe to scout villages, and, when diplomacy failed, resorted to outright kidnapping. There are stories of tall men being snatched off the street or dragged from their beds, then shipped to Prussia to serve.

Once enlisted, these human trophies were treated surprisingly well — given better housing, higher pay, and sometimes even arranged marriages with tall women to breed a future generation of giants. But make no mistake: they were there for show. Friedrich Wilhelm loved to watch them march and considered their height a symbol of Prussia’s military prestige.

One of his proudest acquisitions? James Kirkland, an Irishman said to be over seven feet tall, reportedly kidnapped to join the spectacle.

It wasn’t strategy. It was a royal obsession.