Robert Müller: The King everywhere. Frederick the Great of Prussia examines the potato harvest1886/Wikimedia Commons
The Sanssouci Palace and Park in Potsdam, Germany, was conceived of by Frederick the Great, king of Prussia (1740–86). Sketches of the future residence, drawn in the royal hand, have even been preserved.
With a penchant for military formations, Frederick infused Sanssouci with an almost military spirit. All the elements in the grounds—garden beds, vineyards, groves, and uniformly trimmed bushes—are orderly, neat, and arranged in straight lines and perfect squares. There seems to be, unfortunately, no room for free-spiritedness. The king gave this orderly refuge a French name, Sans Souci (meaning ‘without worries’), and was very fond of it, even ordering that he be buried at Sanssouci.
Grave Of King Frederick II Of Prussia (1712 - 1786) Also Known As Frederick The Great (Friedrich Der Große) Next To The Sanssouci Palace In The Sanssouci Park In Potsdam, Germany. Visitors Often Place Potatoes On His Grave In Honour Of His Role In Promoting The Use Of The Potato In Prussia/Alamy
Interestingly, on the tombstone guarding the Prussian ruler’s eternal rest, one can always find potatoes, which are brought by tourists on a daily basis. The custom originates from a legend that claims Frederick compelled Prussian farmers to cultivate this New World import, and when coercion proved ineffective, he resorted to cunning.
The king allegedly ordered the fields leased by the treasury to be planted with potatoes and then posted guards around the fields to convince people that potatoes were very valuable. Consequently, people began to steal the potatoes at night when the soldiers went to rest (a similar myth exists in Russia with Peter the Great as the protagonist). This is how the peasants got accustomed to eating and then growing potatoes, a plant of a then-unimaginable yield, resistant to bad weather, and with high-calorie content. Some even believe that the explosive population growth in nineteenth-century Europe was due to potatoes, which helped northern Europeans avoid mass fatalities from malnourishment.
Sanssouci palace and park in Potsdam, Germany/Shutterstock
In reality, however, during Frederick's reign, potatoes were already a well-established crop in Prussia, having been actively cultivated during his father’s rule—in fact, they were familiar to farmers in Prussia even before that. However, peasants were not happy about planting potatoes in fields designated for wheat and rye, not because they were ignorant of what potatoes were or how to eat them. Instead, it was because bread was expensive, while potatoes were cheap and undermined grain market prices. Selling grain was more profitable, and the process of growing cereals was more familiar to and less labor-intensive for the villagers. Occasionally, there were ‘potato riots’, the most famous of which occurred in nineteenth-century Russia when the authorities forced state peasants to plant potatoes instead of grain.
In Prussia, the authorities also addressed hunger problems by forcing tenants and landowners, often with the help of the army, to grow the necessary crops, even to the detriment of the peasants' profits. In fact, Frederick the Great was moving away from such coercive methods, believing that freedom in agricultural labor would ultimately bring more benefits.
Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein “The Potato” circa 1814/Wikimedia Commons
However, the myth of the clever king and the potato thieves was so appealing to the Germans, and so widely popularized in literature and even in the art world, that it seems the king's grave will continue to be supplied with potatoes for a very long time to come.
Wilhelm Camphausen: Friedrich the Great. 1870/Wikimedia Commons