Berlinfographicsby Berlin Experiences

The Potato KingPrussia · Friedrich II

Fifteen of Friedrich II’s potato orders survive. The first, in 1746, was a measure against famine

On 9 April 1746 the king ordered potatoes grown in Pomerania, where a famine was raging. People who had never seen the tubers met them with wonder and rejection, and threw them to the dogs, which would not eat them either. The “Potato King” of legend was painted 100 years after his death. In 2023/24 Germans ate 63.5 kg of potatoes each.

Scroll through the orders

Robert Warthmüller, “Der König überall” (“The king everywhere”), 1886: the king inspects the potato harvest. Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin.Robert Warthmüller, 1886. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

01Pomerania, 9 April 1746

A king orders potatoes against a famine

9 April 1746: To meet the famine raging there, it urged townspeople and farmers with land to grow potatoes against the bread shortage.

It is the earliest of the 15 potato orders of Friedrich II that the Deutsches Historisches Museum counts as surviving — the first of the “Kartoffelbefehle”, the “potato orders”.

9 April 1746

“Daß zu Abhelfung des Brodt-Mangels der Bürger und Bauer …”

The order’s opening words: “That, to remedy the shortage of bread, the townsman and the farmer …” — it urged townspeople and farmers with land to grow potatoes.

A portrait of an elderly man with powdered grey hair in a dark blue coat with a red collar and a silver star.
Friedrich II in old age, painted by Anton Graff in 1781.Anton Graff, 1781. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

02The orders

Fifteen orders survive. Three carry a date — and the line from them runs to your plate

Friedrich II
One potato for each surviving order of Friedrich II. As you read, the three orders with a known date move onto a time line; the line then stretches to his death, to the painting that named him the Potato King, and to today.
A portrait of an elderly man with powdered grey hair in a dark blue coat with a red collar and a silver star.
Friedrich II, painted by Anton Graff in 1781.Anton Graff, 1781. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

15 orders

Fifteen potato orders of Friedrich II survive

The Deutsches Historisches Museum counts 15 of his “Kartoffelbefehle” — orders to grow potatoes — that have come down to us. Each potato here is one of them.

Source: DHM, Blume (2026)

A hand-coloured engraved map of north-eastern Germany with the Baltic coast at the top, provinces outlined in colour, a decorative title cartouche with cherubs and coats of arms.
Pomerania and Brandenburg on Johann Baptist Homann’s map of about 1720.Johann Homann, 1720. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

9 April 1746

The first: Pomerania, against a famine

To meet the famine raging there, it urged townspeople and farmers with land to grow potatoes against the bread shortage.

Source: DHM, Blume (2026)

A dark green field under a low sky; a man, two women and a child bend to gather potatoes into baskets.
Max Liebermann, “Potato Harvest”, 1875.Max Liebermann, 1875. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

9 April 1746

It failed

The first relief in Pomerania failed. People who had never seen such tubers met them with wonder and rejection, and threw them to the dogs, which would not eat them either.

Source: DHM, Blume (2026)

A hand-coloured engraved map of north-eastern Germany with the Baltic coast at the top, provinces outlined in colour, a decorative title cartouche with cherubs and coats of arms.
The Kurmark and Neumark, Brandenburg, on Homann’s map of about 1720.Johann Homann, 1720. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

18 July 1748

The second: Kurmark and Neumark

Issued for the Brandenburg provinces; the document is now in the Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv, Potsdam. It came 831 days after the order before it.

Source: DHM, Blume (2026) · BLHA, via the DHM

A hand-coloured map of central Europe with the provinces of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia outlined in colour, rivers and towns marked.
Silesia, with Bohemia, Moravia and Lusatia, on a map of 1747.Majer, 1747. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

24 March 1756

The third: Silesia — and officials to watch the farmers

A circular to district administrators and officials in Silesia, ordering them to watch whether farmers complied. It came 2,806 days after the order before it. Later orders came with instructions for use.

Source: Deutschland Museum

Farm workers in a hilly field fill sacks and baskets with potatoes; a horse team ploughs behind them under a rain cloud.
Fritz Boehle, “Potato Harvest”, 1899.Fritz Boehle, 1899. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

12 more

Twelve more survive

Of the 15 surviving orders, the three above are the ones whose dates and provinces are documented in the sources for this story. The other twelve are not placed on the line.

Source: DHM, Blume (2026)

A dark interior lit by a fire: an old man slumps in an armchair, supported by a servant, while men by the fireplace look on.
Bernhard Rode, “The death of Frederick the Great”, 1786/87.Bernhard Rode, 1786. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

17 August 1786

The king dies

Friedrich II died on 17 August 1786, 40 years after his first potato order.

Source: SPSG

An oil painting: an old man in a tricorn hat and blue coat, with officers behind him, stands in a field and looks down at potatoes held out by kneeling country people.
Robert Warthmüller, “Der König überall”, 1886.Robert Warthmüller, 1886. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

1886

1886: the “Potato King” is painted

100 years after his death, Robert Warthmüller’s “Der König überall” (“The king everywhere”) showed him at the potato harvest and made him the “Kartoffelkönig” — the Potato King — for good.

Source: DHM, Blume (2026)

A plain stone slab set in a lawn behind a low rail, covered with a row of potatoes and a few bunches of flowers.
Potatoes on his grave at Sanssouci, August 2022.Flocci Nivis, 2022. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.

2023/24

2023/24: 63.5 kg a head

Germans ate 63.5 kg of potatoes per person in 2023/24 (provisional figures), the most in twelve years.

Source: BZL/BLE via top agrar

A dark green field under a low sky; a man, two women and a child bend to gather potatoes into baskets.
Max Liebermann, “Potato Harvest”, 1875: a family digging potatoes by hand.Max Liebermann, 1875. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

03The reception

The tubers went to the dogs — and the dogs would not eat them either

The first relief in Pomerania failed. People who had never seen such tubers met them with wonder and rejection. Later orders came with instructions for use.

“Warfen sie schließlich den Hunden vor, die sie auch nicht fraßen.”

“In the end they threw them to the dogs, which would not eat them either.” — Dorlis Blume, Deutsches Historisches Museum

Farm workers in a hilly field fill sacks and baskets with potatoes; a horse team ploughs behind them under a rain cloud.
Fritz Boehle, “Potato Harvest”, 1899: workers bag the crop as a plough team turns the next rows.Fritz Boehle, 1899. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
A wide field at dusk with workers filling sacks, a horse-drawn cart and a column of smoke from a field fire.
Emil Hallatz, “Potato Harvest”, painted before his death in 1888: sacks, carts and a fire of potato haulm on the field.Emil Hallatz, before 1888. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

The crop the dogs refused became a painter’s subject. Max Liebermann painted the potato harvest in 1875, Emil Hallatz before his death in 1888, Fritz Boehle in 1899.

04Record and legend

The best-known potato story about Friedrich II — a field, its guards and the peasants — is not in his orders. It is first found in 19th-century popular literature, and the fact-check behind this page found no source that confirms it. What the documents do show is plainer: orders, dates, provinces — and dogs.

What the documents show

What the story says

Legend

“The king had royal potato fields guarded, and told the guards to let peasants steal from them.”

Legend; not confirmed by any source checked. It is first found in 19th-century popular literature.

05Robert Warthmüller, 1886

The “Potato King” was made 100 years after his death

In 1886, Robert Warthmüller painted “Der König überall” — “The king everywhere”. It shows Friedrich II at the potato harvest, and the Deutsches Historisches Museum says it made him the “Kartoffelkönig”, the Potato King, for good. By then his first potato order was 140 years old.

From the first order to the painting

An oil painting: an old man in a tricorn hat and blue coat, with officers behind him, stands in a field and looks down at potatoes held out by kneeling country people.
Robert Warthmüller, “Der König überall” (“The king everywhere”), 1886: the king inspects the potato harvest. Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin. Shown whole.Robert Warthmüller, 1886. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

06Sanssouci, Potsdam

Visitors still bring him potatoes

Friedrich II lies on the terrace beside Schloss Sanssouci under a plain slab that reads “Friedrich der Große”. Visitors lay potatoes on it — the photographs below were taken in 2014 and 2022, and the Deutsches Historisches Museum photographed potatoes on his grave at Sanssouci in 2026.

A plain stone slab set in a lawn behind a low rail, covered with a row of potatoes and a few bunches of flowers.
Potatoes and flowers on the grave of Friedrich II at Sanssouci, Potsdam, August 2022. The stone reads simply “Friedrich der Große”.Flocci Nivis, 2022. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.
A sunny terrace: a white marble statue group stands over a flat grave slab in the grass that carries potatoes and a sunflower.
The grave on the terrace beside Schloss Sanssouci, 2014: a statue group above, potatoes and flowers on the slab.Hiroki Ogawa, 2014. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 3.0.
A candle-lit rococo music room: a man plays the flute at a music stand while court ladies and gentlemen listen.
Sanssouci, where he lies, as Adolph Menzel imagined it in 1850: “Flute Concert of Frederick the Great at Sanssouci”, the king playing among his court.Adolph von Menzel, 1850. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

07Today

In 2023/24 Germans ate the most potatoes in twelve years

Per person, Germans ate 63.5 kg of potatoes in 2023/24, up from 55.7 kg in 2022/23 — the most in twelve years. The latest figure is provisional.

63.5kg

per person, 2023/24 (provisional)

Source: Bundesinformationszentrum Landwirtschaft / BLE, via top agrar (13 Dec 2024)

Potatoes eaten per person, two seasons

2023/24: a year of potatoes, week by week

The Potato King · 1746

He ordered potatoes against hunger, and the dogs refused them. The legend came later; the potatoes stayed.

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Berlinfographics (2026). “The Potato King”. Berlin Experiences. https://berlinfographics.com/potato-king/

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{{cite web |title=The Potato King |url=https://berlinfographics.com/potato-king/ |website=Berlinfographics |publisher=Berlin Experiences |date=2026-11-05 |access-date=2026-11-05}}