German revolutionary Carl Schurz was an all-American hero. A teacher who climbed the barricades during the failed uprising against an autocratic Prussian state in 1848, he exported his democratic fervour to America four years later: Schutz fought for the unionist cause in the civil war, served as US secretary of the interior and introduced to his adopted homeland the concept of the kindergarten.

Yet most Americans, and even more Germans, would struggle to put a face to the name of the man whose memorial in Wisconsin identifies him as America's "greatest German American". The UK and the US may quarrel over of the precise location of Winston Churchill's bust inside the White House, but at least they know who they are talking about.

If the German foreign policy circles are to be believed, all that could change if the UK leaves the European Union. Since Barack Obama's visit to Europe last weekend, Germany's media has been alive with speculation that the country could take over the UK's role in a "special relationship" with the US after Brexit.