Chris

The ERM undervalued the Deutschmark and because of the way the ERM worked, other member states were obliged to buy and sell currencies in order to keep it that way. Eventually the Euro locked in the advantage. “Oh well Germany does loads more trade with China than us so therefore the EU is great” is, frankly, an economically illiterate argument to make because it fundamentally misunderstands some of the most foundational policy objectives of the European project.

The postwar settlement was designed to enable Germany to rebuild its economy based on industry and for France to produce enough to feed both countries. That was handled initially by pooling and sharing coal and steel resources, and soon afterwards with a broader economic union drawing in neighbouring states.

Unsurprisingly, the military security of the continent was taken right out of German hands by placing it with NATO, which ought to be repeated loud and often, especially when the EU is held up as in some way responsible for preventing another European war. NATO prevented war by confiscating Germany’s guns, occupying half the country and then pointing nuclear missiles at the paranoid dictatorship that came to occupy the other half. NATO’s political and military control is entirely disconnected from the EU, which is as it should have been because the whole idea was to lock Germany out of military issues. The western allies have taken care of Germany’s security for it, and given the murderous tendencies of Stalin’s Soviet Union, doubtless saved it from being wholly occupied by the Red Army (for the avoidance of doubt on this issue, see the Berlin Blockade).

In the midst of all this, Germany has been free, in fact has been actively encouraged and enabled, to become an economic powerhouse. Whether the very measures designed to prevent it destabilising Europe ever again will in the long term actually cause destabilisation, is yet to be seen.