London (CNN) -- Germany has been at the very heart of the European Union since it began 60 years ago as a way of pooling coal and steel resources -- and of preventing future wars on a continent already devastated by brutal conflicts. But as the region's strongest economy, it has borne the brunt of the cost of recent rescue deals, and the country's troubled history has meant its insistence on unity is viewed with suspicion by some of its neighbors. So why is Germany still so willing to do all it can to protect the European Union? And will anything shake its faith in the euro?
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Germany has been at the very heart of the European Union since it began 60 years ago
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As region's strongest economy, it has borne the brunt of the cost of recent rescue deals
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Deutschmark was seen as symbol of Germany's post-WWII recovery, move to euro a major sacrifice
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Germany keen to protect euro, but "no-one wants to pour water into a leaking bucket forever"
"Germany was completely devastated after the war, and that meant it could begin again from scratch, build a new @placeholder, a new democratic nation, using economic growth as the basis for that democracy.