The Euro is no longer a "copy" of the Deutchmark. I agree that it was intended to be so; in fact, I've said that many times here on FR.
I don't think any of the Europeans had to be compelled to implement social welfare states. They ran toward socialism with their arms [and wallets] wide open.
My point is that, month by month, the Germans are caving on every principle they've stood for. The ECB, rather than functioning like the Bundesbank, is now -- intentionally -- much closer to the Fed.
Germany is becoming the puppet. The bread-earning puppet. Though that'll end, too, once inflation takes hold.
There is nobody for Germany to become a puppet to. They are still very much in control of the EU, as they always have been. All these proposals to “save” the euro all come out of that country.
And what principles do you think Germany stood for? They’ve never stood for anything the USA stood for, even and especially post-WWII. They were the inventors of the social market economy, from Adenauer down to the present day. West Germany was allowed to create a copy of the previous failed Weimar Republic, with the USA propping it up (and I can’t figure out why).
The euro was meant to cause this financial crisis for the purpose of driving the EU’s member states to accept giving up their sovereignty. That and the fact that there is no EU treasury are the only differences between it and the Deutsche mark.