i'm no economist... but didn't externalizing a lot of production offset the missing population growth? So germany just externalized raw material extraction and production but still kept the profits?
>>bitsch+(OP)
Germany has also "climbed the value ladder" focusing on production of high-value goods whilst counting on imports to provide for low-value ones.
Some of that is of course classic Ricardian "comparative advantage" of trade. Much is, though, outsourcing high-impact / high-resource / high-effluent production to elsewhere.