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Explanation: After the failed liberal/socialist (infighting was involved) revolutions of '48 in the German states, many of the revolutionaries decided to start a new life in the US. Naturally, their inclinations were very much anti-slavery, and for that reason German-Americans remained strongly abolitionist and pro-Union during the US Civil War, and hundreds of thousands of German-Americans volunteered for service to whip the secessionist slavers. It was said (perhaps tongue-in-cheek) that some German immigrants could speak no English, except enough to ask to serve under the highest-ranking revolutionary veteran in the Union army, General Sigel. “I wants to fight mit Sigel!”
The German guy in Django Unchained is making more sense to me now.
When I watched the movie, I was really impressed by the choice, especially the subtlety of it. The liberal nationalist obsession with traditional mythology, the strongly anti-slavery worldview, his very educated-middle-class former profession of dentistry, his age, and, of course, the fact that he was very obviously a German immigrant.
Never outright stated, but traced so perfectly that those who know the history of 48ers could make the connection.
