Germans Really, Really Love the Euro

As worries over the future of the euro zone heat up, the union's biggest member is doubling down on the single currency in an underappreciated way.

Germany's central bank is by far the biggest issuer of cash in the bloc, with the Bundesbank the source of more euro banknotes in circulation than all of its peers combined. The size of the imbalance is underscored by new data from the European Central Bank, showing nations' contributions towards the Eurosystem's consolidated financial statement.

Each national central bank, or NCB, has a notional banknote allocation that's tied to its share of Eurosystem capital. At the end of last year, there were 1.1 trillion euros ($1.25 trillion) in circulation, breaking down like this: