In the famed “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, we see Ferris dancing on a float, singing to a Beatles tune at the top of his lungs in an unnamed parade. The namesake of the event is a long-dead German by the name of Von Steuben, a gay ex-captain of the Prussian Army (of Frederick the Great) who left a lasting and critical impression on American history.
At a bleak moment in the American Revolution, in the cold of winter at Valley Forge, Baron Von Steuben presented himself in full regalia, and with an entourage (including his dog and cook) to the undisciplined and beleaguered Continental Army. With him, he brought Prussian military expertise, some of the most advanced in the world at the time, along with Prussian military discipline and lore. One continental soldier calling him the very likeness of the Roman god of war, Mars, he spoke lewdly and swore at the soldiers in German and French to toughen them up but won great confidence among the American ranks as he trained them into a fighting force not to be meddled with.
He wrote the first standardized American military handbook called the Blue Book in which he detailed everything from tactics to marching to where the latrines should go. And pivotally, he commanded an army at the famed culminating battle of the American Revolution at Yorktown.
In at least this way, the Germans (Prussians) left a permanent and indelible imprint on the birth of our nation.
Bearer of Pity 