Germany set Europe’s austerity agenda because Germans genuinely believed their ideas.

Evidence

Germany was able to take the lead in Europe because German ideas have been at the heart of the EU and the euro since its inception. This is also why the Germans were able so successfully to turn the debate about the crisis their way—they were the only people who really believed what they were saying. Whereas the Americans were Keynesians by default, the Germans were ordoliberals by design. In monetary matters above all, credere (belief) matters. — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 379

Categorization

• XREF: Core intellectual-history mechanism relevant to Mattei and the austerity literature: persuasive power rests on sincere conviction. — connects to: The German left endorsed hard-core austerity, seeing crisis as necessary correction — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 531