And yet there is broad sentiment across Germany that the euro has not been good for individuals. A recent survey by one of Germany’s premier research companies, Infratest dimap, of 1,004 people found this month that 57 percent feel Germany should have kept the mark, while 60 percent said the euro was a disadvantage to them personally.

“I do think that a lot became more expensive” with the euro, said Jonas Molzberger, 21, an apprentice at the hotel Grauer Wolf on the main street of Erlangen. “We feel that too in the hotel industry, especially in the restaurant. There are less people, less is being ordered.”

Low salaries  and higher prices  are a core complaint of German workers who are increasingly demanding wage increases after a decade in which their real earnings dropped by 4.5 percent when adjusted for inflation, according to a recent report by the International Labor Organization. Exports have grown robustly in part because workers agreed years ago to reduced wages and reduced hours to make Germany more competitive.

Like workers in other industrialized nations, including the United States, Germans also have had to accept that the jobs available are not as secure as they once were. The number of people in nonstandard or atypical employment in Germany increased to 7.72 million in 2008 from 5.29 million in 1998, according to the Federal Statistical Office.

“I see how families are struggling,” said Eberhard Irlinger, administrator for Erlangen-Höchstadt, a district of about 130,000 people around the city of Erlangen. “In fact, part of the economic prosperity comes from people not getting the social security they should have. Germans are very reluctant to help other people when they have had to step back from their own demands.”

Yet these feelings of insecurity do not fit neatly into the picture of a nation that has strikingly outperformed its neighbors. In fact, many Bavarian businesses say their biggest problem these days is a shortage of skilled workers to fill positions that would help meet a growing demand for German quality goods.

Image “Struggling” families are seen in Erlangen-Höchstadt. Credit... The New York Times

Across the nation, Germany has experienced a severe shortage of skilled workers, in part because of its low unemployment rate, but also because of a low birth rate and a relatively unwelcoming environment for immigrants, said officials, business leaders and experts.