Jack Ewing, a writer for the New York Times, describes the impact of the American China trade war on the German economy.  The 4th quarter seems to show the first impacts of  Trumps trade tariffs.  Growing near the slowest rate in the EU only just beating out Italy.  With completely stagnant growth in the 4th quarter Germany the economic data coming out of German steel manufacturing was bad news for all of Europe. As the largest economy in Europe, Germany has historically picked up the slack of the struggling nations in the union, however as they are adversely affected by tariffs placed on Chinese goods. German auto manufacturers saw a noticeable demand drop in the Chinese market.  The numbers for quarter 4 were just barley above the threshold to classify the economy as in recession but the base of the German economy is very sound.  There has been little impact on investing and unemployment rates which remain some of the lowest in the EU. Part of the fear in the German market is the uncertainty in the future effect and actions taken by either side in Trumps trade war with China. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/business/germany-economy.html