Krugman on "Eurosclerosis:"

Kurzarbeit

I’m not the first to make this point, but when people make Germany-US comparisons, there’s an important contrast between the GDP comparison, in which Germany actually does slightly worse:

 

Eurostat

and the employment picture, in which Germany does much better:

 

OECD

What is this telling us? German growth hasn’t been great, one quarter notwithstanding; but it avoided US-style mass layoffs even when it was slumping badly. Part of the explanation is the Kurzarbeit program of work-sharing; also, Germany’s labor laws and its strong unions have led to a situation in which workers aren’t treated as much as variable costs as they are here.

So American conservatives now holding up Germany as a role model are actually praising the virtues of Eurosclerosis, and disparaging American-style capitalism.

The differences in GDP change I'd argue reflect the fact that Germany is more export-oriented. They probably would have had bigger losses except for their "automatic stablilizers." Meanwhile the U.S. had "50 little Hoovers" - the states whose budget cutting made a bad situation worse. So in effect austerity-obsessed Germany had a bigger Keynesian stimulus.