Prussian King Frederick William I had a regiment of very tall men, known as the “Potsdam Giants”. The taller they were, the more they were paid – and they were paired with tall women, to breed giant soldiers. However, they were never sent on active service, as they were considered too valuable
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He collected them all over the continent. Some of them were even kidnapped. They were treated well and all they had to do was wearing uniforms, doing parades and exercise for doing parades. But they had the highest number of deserters in the whole prussian army.
There is an audio file (german) about Kig Friedirch and his “Long Guys” that is very intersting.
https://www.ardaudiothek.de/episode/hoersaal/der-donald-trump-von-preussen-historikerin-barbara-stollberg-rilinger/deutschlandfunk-nova/91519834
I thought they were called ‘die langen Kerle’.
And their hats added to the height
This makes me think of a local tradition called the “Ranzengarde” that was implemented specifically to mock this unit and its French equivalent – an “elite” regiment of men chosen not by their heighth but their width, meaning that it was the size of your belly that determined if you could join or not.