I don't understand why this comment is being down voted. While "currency suppression/ currency manipulation" is usually spoken about in association with fraud, this is most certainly one of the reasons that has allowed German manufacturing to remain competitive despite having higher labor costs. Excellent comment.
I think the reason this is downvoted is that the situation in Germany is relatively unchanged since before the Euro was introduced. Saying German success is mostly based on the Euro is a great narrative but completely ignores the reality that Germany's economy was already strong and getting stronger in the decades before that.
That's not saying Germany doesn't benefit from the Euro today or that it wouldn't be profoundly stupid for Germany to abandon the Eurozone but it's not an explanation, just a contributing factor.
"Saying German success is mostly based on the Euro is a great narrative but completely ignores the reality that Germany's economy was already strong and getting stronger in the decades before that."
Which part of "it wasn't just the Euro, reunification had the same effect" was I unclear about?
"Germany surpassed the United States to become the world’s leading exporter in 1992, around the time that Germany joined the European Union as a founding member."
As I said Germany was already the world's second largest exporter in 1960. Behind the US, which has 4 times the population.
Germany then became the largest exporter in 86, 87, 88, 90, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008.
In 2016 Germany is the third largest exporter after China and the US. The account surplus (goods, services and investments) was the largest, next is China.
Thus the claim that Germany is a leading exporter because of Euro currency manipulation fails to explain why Germany was one of the leading exporters in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s and 2010s. In all those years it was in the top three.
Reunification had the Ostmark valued at parity with the DM, even though it was clearly worth a lot less, so essentially it was a large money printing and subsidy.
e.g. see this article on Politico which basically says the same thing: http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/05/26/trump-right-.... The reunification part though: I had not thought about that, and is an interesting revelation.