Freddy -- In and Out of Hiding For 100 Years

Oddly enough, the U.S. Army’s Carlisle Barracks boasts an impressive statue of Frederick the Great, a famous German king and general whose entire life predated the signing of our Constitution. The statue was donated in 1904 by German royalty as a sign of friendship between America and Germany, although poor “Freddy” immediately got off to a rocky start

Within a few months of it being erected in Washington D.C. (then the site of the Army War College) there was an attempt to blow him up with a bag of explosives. The statue was only saved when an alert employee noticed the explosives, picked them up, and tossed them away before they could cause any damage. What a badass.
Following US entry into WW1, and a second bombing attempt, Freddy was put into storage (i.e. hiding) until 1927. He rode out WW2 un-bombed, but was taken down in 1946. He would spend another 8 years in storage until he was moved to the parade ground at Carlisle Barracks.

While he had previously been prominently placed at the front of the Army War College in Washington D.C., the memorandum authorizing his erection in Carlisle stated that he should be placed “in a relatively inconspicuous site”. And so he still stands today, overlooking graduating classes of senior leaders from the USAWC!