The life story of Jacob Nacken — the tallest soldier of the Wehrmacht
In 1944, Allied soldiers from the Anglo-Canadian regiment captured a strange prisoner near the French city of Calais. He was a Wehrmacht private of gigantic stature, next to whom the tallest Englishmen looked like children. The fighter had documents with him, from which it became known that the giant's name was Jacob Naken and he was 38 years old. Then one of the Anglo-Saxons remembered that he had heard about this man in peacetime. His name was then simply "The tallest man in the world."
Jacob Hudson Nacken was born on February 15, 1906 in Dusseldorf. He had a good heredity — his parents were taller than 180 cm. But Jacob himself left them far behind, having grown up to 221 cm. The huge growth gave the German a lot of trouble. His head was constantly decorated with bruises and bumps from encounters with door jambs. Naken hardly used public transport and was forced to spend a lot of money on tailor-made clothing.
They didn't want to take a huge guy to a regular job, especially since there was a crisis in Germany. Therefore, when Jacob was offered a job in the circus, he was incredibly happy. Circus life spun the young man on tour, and he almost stopped being at home, traveling across the expanses of Europe and the Americas.
The public knew Naken under the stage names "Uranus" and "The Giant from the Rhineland". To these big names, the impresario was almost always added - "the tallest man in the world" and the audience remembered Jacob well. For contrast, the guy was put in the same rooms with the shortest artists.
Jacob Naken was a giant, but he was far from the tallest people on the planet. At the same time , an American Robert Wadlow lived with him with a height of 272 cm and a Dutchman Albert Johan Kramer with 242 cm . But it was not the numbers that were important, but competent advertising and circus marketing masters knew their job perfectly.
Jacob really liked the touring life, thanks to which he saw the world. In 1939, the giant took part in the World's Fair in New York as part of the German delegation. Then Naken decided that he would stay in a beautiful country across the ocean. But he could not fulfill his dream — the war broke out and the presence of Reich citizens in the United States became undesirable.
Due to the fighting in Europe, normal circus life was disrupted and trips were increasingly canceled. But Jacob did not have time to become unemployed again — the country remembered about him and called him into the army. In Germany, Naken became the tallest fighter and he again had to face difficulties. The giant's uniform and shoes were made to order, but otherwise he did not receive any indulgences.
In general, even according to the laws of wartime, Jacob should not have been drafted into the army. It is well known that people of very large stature are full of diseases associated with the musculoskeletal system, heart and other organs. There were such problems with Naken, but for some reason no one took this into account.
The tallest Wehrmacht soldier was not the tallest soldier in Europe. Vine Mullirine, whose height was 247 cm, served in the Finnish army. But the Finn was found unfit for combat service and he was assigned to the rear services. Jacob Nacken was less lucky with this and he found himself in the midst of a bloody massacre.
Jacob served in a machine gun company and for discipline and bravery quickly received the rank of chief corporal. He fought in the fields of Poland and France, and was captured after being slightly wounded near the city of Boulogne-sur-Mer in the Pas-de-Calais department. History has preserved two pictures of Jacob's captivity. Next to him is Canadian Corporal Bob Roberts. In one of the photos, two soldiers look at each other, and it is clear that Jacob is scared. And on the second, Roberts searches the pockets of the German.
Eyewitnesses recalled that the communication between Roberts and Naken looked so funny that both Canadians and British, as well as captured Germans, laughed. In general, the situation at this moment did not look threatening and even strained. In addition, the Canadian soldiers were pleasantly surprised that Jacob speaks English. The prisoner said that he worked in a circus and visited both the USA and Canada.
After all the formalities, Naken and other wounded Wehrmacht soldiers were sent to a hospital in Scotland. This was the end of the war for the tallest soldier of the Wehrmacht. After his recovery, Jacob was sent to a prison camp, and from there, at the end of 1945, he returned to Germany. At home, Naken married a girl named Maria, with whom he emigrated to the USA in 1949 — the country of his dreams.
Jacob and Maria settled in New Jersey, in the city of Paterson. Nakena's sister settled there before the war. It turned out that in the USA, "the tallest man in the world" is still remembered. The giant turned out to be in demand as an artist and had success in the role of a huge Santa at children's matinees. Then Jacob was invited to television, where he was nicknamed "Long Jake from Germany."
Naken has been a guest on Robert Ripley's Believe It or Not show and many other high-rated TV shows. In 1955, Jacob and his wife became U.S. citizens. Until 1959, the German performed in various shows on Broadway under the name "The Great Uranus". He was known not only for his tall stature, but also for his strength. Sometimes Jacob would put two girls on his shoulders and carry them around the stage.
After retiring, Naken decided to return to his native Germany. He came to his native land, where he spent the last years of his life. The giant died in 1987 at the age of 81.