Frederick the Great framed humans as plants to be bred by the state

Evidence

It annoys me to see how much trouble is taken to cultivate pineapples, bananas and other exotic plants in this rough climate, when so little care is given to the human race. Whatever people say, a human being is more valuable than all the pineapples in the world. He is the plant we must breed, he deserves all our trouble and care, for he is the ornament and the glory of the Fatherland. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 386

Categorization

• XREF: Feeds the ADDENDUM-style lineage on how ‘breeding’ language migrated from agriculture into racial and eugenic statecraft.
• QUESTION: The chapter seems to draw a line from Enlightenment statecraft to Nazi eugenics — worth verifying this genealogy is not being overdrawn.
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 386