Frederick the Great, potatoes and the art of rebranding (2024)

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Frederick the Great, potatoes and the art of rebranding? ›

He proposed the potato as a suitable new addition to the nation's diet. But peasants resisted growing it. They said that potatoes looked dirty and had no taste. So King Frederick decided to rebrand it as a royal vegetable, planted a royal field with potato plants and ordered his guards to protect them.

It was 18th Century Prussia, and King Frederick the Great wanted the Germans to integrate the potato into their diet. He had good reasoning, too. He wanted the German people to have an additional staple beyond wheat (bread) while lessening their chances of famine.

On March 24, 1756, he issued a circular order to his officials and thus the first of the so-called potato orders with the order "to make the rulers and subjects understand the benefits of planting this earth plant, and to advise them that they should do so this morning -Year plant the potatoes as a very nutritious food ...

Frederick was a supporter of enlightened absolutism, stating that the ruler should be the first servant of the state. He modernised the Prussian bureaucracy and civil service, and pursued religious policies that ranged from tolerance to segregation.

Frederick recognized the nutritional value and economic feasibility of the plant, and so, in 1756, he decreed that potatoes should be cultivated and grown all over his country. He planted a large field in a near village, gathered a crowd, and preached to them about the benefits of the potato.

The painting had to depict the harsh reality of country life, so he gave the peasants coarse faces and bony, working hands. He wanted to show in this way that they 'have tilled the earth themselves with these hands they are putting in the dish ... that they have thus honestly earned their food'.

He struck on a classic marketing tactic that was later to be explained by Professor Cialdini in “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”: Scarcity. Frederick made the potato more appealing, not by promoting it but by taking it away. Scarcity or limited availability makes things more desirable.

Potatoes supplied about 80 percent of the calories in their diet. The peasants used potato fodder to feed their animals, animals which provided milk, meat and eggs to supplement the peasants' diet. This dependence on one food crop was dangerous, but no other crop had ever proved to be as reliable.

He sent a message to Technoblade, congratulating him on his victory. Technoblade was overjoyed. He thanked Squid Kid for the intense competition and graciously accepted his congratulations. The Potato War was over, and Technoblade was the undisputed champion.

To thank Frederick for his contribution and impressive use of reverse psychology, visitors now lay potatoes at Frederick's grave.

Who were victims of the Great Potato Famine? ›

It decimated Ireland's population, which stood at about 8.5 million on the eve of the Famine. It is estimated that the Famine caused about 1 million deaths between 1845 and 1851 either from starvation or hunger-related disease. A further 1 million Irish people emigrated.

Phytophthora infestans is a destructive plant pathogen best known for causing the disease that triggered the Irish potato famine and remains the most costly potato pathogen to manage worldwide.

Every man has a wild beast within him. He who defends everything defends nothing. If my soldiers were to begin to think, not one of them would remain in the army. Religion is the idol of the mob; it adores everything it does not understand.

Where did potatoes originate? The Inca Indians in Peru were the first to cultivate potatoes around 8,000 BC to 5,000 B.C. Potato History: The ancient civilizations of the Incas used the time it took to cook a potato as a measurement of time.

The most famous example of this involves Frederick the Great, also known as the Potato King (Der Kartoffelkönig). As king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, Frederick wanted to encourage his subjects to eat potatoes because of how healthy they were.