I am thinking, of course, of the Peace of Westphalia, which was signed in Münster in 1648. It put an end to the Thirty Years’ War, in which soldiers from almost all of the European powers had fought against each other since 1618, claiming millions of lives.
The answer is that Germany has given itself the means to be more competitive thanks to its bold structural reforms. In the early 2000s, Germany launched labour market reforms. It remains an example for the other EU countries to follow. Its performance is based on the great strength of its small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are exporting and innovating.