> And yet the public debt of Germany is just as high as these credit addicted nations, what does that say?

That in the past Germany was not so sensible about its budget.

Gross debt is as high. Net debt is way lower than in the US let alone in the UK, Japan or Club Med countries. (The German Feds and the states own parts of a lot of strategic income producing companies - KfW state investment bank, Deutsche Bahn, Volkswagen etc).