Things have been so much smoother in the EU since UK left. Their politicians had this idea that Europe was out to screw them in every deal and that made it a very annoying 30 years of "collaboration".
Things have been so much smoother in the EU since UK left. Their politicians had this idea that Europe was out to screw them in every deal and that made it a very annoying 30 years of "collaboration".
As a result, if EU offered X, UK representatives would argue that they must get at least X + 25%. During the 30 years this continued, it led to an atmosphere of distrust and aggressive behaviour that honestly the rest of EU was very tired of.
Additionally given that we'll all need security cooperation for the foreseeable it would be easier if that took place under the EU aegis.
But, because they pushed for enlargement, they then felt obliged to open their markets to the countries immediately, and that was definitely one of the drivers of the Brexit vote.
Further more, the UK was an important net contributor.
So I think, on the whole, Brexit was bad for Germany.