Did Frederick The Great Introduce The Potato To Germany?

“If beef’s the king of meat, potato’s the queen of the garden world”

When in 1951, American starlet Marilyn Monroe was dressed down by a catty critic as only being beautiful because of her clothes, her response was to organise a photo shoot wearing a burlap potato sack – and in doing so prove an important point: that the side dish can be truly awful, as long as the main course makes your mouth water.

German cuisine is not generally known for its mouth watering main courses – nor its inspiring side dishes either, where potato seems to feature prominently. Although any allegory of Marilyn Monroe soon falls apart when we consider that the burlap sack may indeed represent potatoes, but the part of Monroe on a German plate is almost exclusively played by a stonking great piece of pork.

Hardly flattering. Even when dolled up in diamonds and heels.

Take note of the three pork and potato dishes mentioned in the opening paragraph – which may be considered ‘German’ but are of varied origin themselves.

Three dishes united in their utilisation of the humble potato (if we are to make one assumption about German cuisine it would be that it often comes with potato).

But three dishes also from a time before Germany existed.

An important point to bear in mind here, whilst we consider the matter of the potato and its provenance.

We can swiftly deal with one misapprehension when questioning what part Frederick the Great played in popularising the spud in Germany.

Germany as we think of it now would not really exist until 1871 – when the country was first united following the defeats of Denmark, Austria, and France at the hands of Prussia and its allies. As such, during Fredrick the Great’s rule – from 1740 until 1786 – it would have been impossible for him to introduce the potato to ‘Germany’ per se.