Frederick the Great and His Giant Bodyguard: When Surveillance Came in XXL

Before he became the mastermind of Europe’s battlefields, Frederick the Great spent his childhood under surveillance—not by spies, but by a giant.

Yes, a literal one.

A young Frederick The Great and Giant Bodyguard

His father, Frederick William I, had a notorious obsession with tall soldiers. He even formed the Potsdam Giants, an elite regiment of men over six feet tall (some closer to seven). These towering soldiers were the king’s pride—and, apparently, a solution to child-rearing.

In one of the most bizarre twists of royal parenting, young Frederick was assigned one of these giants as a personal bodyguard. But this wasn’t a kindly protector—it was a walking, breathing warning sign. The message was clear: Obey your father. Every step is being watched… by a man who could block the sun.

The King believed this would instill discipline. Instead, it instilled resentment. Frederick hated the regiment and what it stood for: spectacle over substance, blind obedience over intellect. When he became king, one of his first acts was to dismantle the regiment, replacing it with practical, merit-based reforms.

Frederick didn’t just reject the legacy of the “Soldier King”—he buried it beneath Enlightenment ideals and battlefield pragmatism.

Still, the image lingers: a boy prince walking the palace halls, trailed by a living skyscraper, dreaming of a kingdom that didn’t measure greatness in inches.