Germany has long had a mercantile trade policy. They wanted to be able to prevent countries from competitively devaluing their currencies so as to make their goods cheaper in foreign markets....thus competing against German goods. One of the huge benefits Germany got was a lot of the rest of Europe - especially southern Europe - joined the Euro and was therefore locked in on the currency. No more competitive devaluations of the currency. Essentially, Germany was buying export markets.
Exactly. Germany also extended credit to finance the transition, furthering the evolution of the EU political and currency union into a finance and budget union.
—”competitively devaluing their currencies so as to make their goods cheaper in foreign markets”
Long ago I heard Milton Friedman answer this very question.
In an instant, he said, ‘If that were so, the high-inflation countries would be the world’s leading exporters, and it does not happen.’