Just happened upon this - so I'll add a little from a British perspective! The appliances would not object to the voltage at all these days - for a while European equipment has been designed for a "declared" voltage of 230. This can legally vary by some degree from around 208v to as much as 250v.
As for the ground issue with the neutral - no problem either, if you notice, the schuko plug is NOT polarised, so either conductor can be live (hot) at the appliance.
To the plug issue, you are possibly better using a US certified plug I think, the schuko would be fine (though not approved), the UK plug has a fuse in it and the live side only.
I think it is high time the US moved over to 230v appliances in general (or at least kitchens etc for a start) as it would solve a lot of your voltage drop problems in an instant. I believe the idea was toyed with many years ago, but you guys already had masses of appliances even then and to swap it all - big problem. Phasing it in kitchens first and selling 230v appliances alongside 120v ones would be a good way to gradually change maybe???
Oh and the black in the UK was the grounded neutral until about 5 years ago - then we harmonised with Europe and now it's blue!!!