The US is brilliant at the short term, as characterized by it's sales culture; the mentality of sell first, build second is extremely effective in allowing some forms of innovation, capturing market share fast and eliminating certain forms of waste. This of course was traditionally offset by attracting talent worldwide, such as academics and engineers, to immigrate to the US
By contrast Germans are famous for their engineering. It's much more a build first, sell second approach that's characterized by long term thinking and planning. Socially that's also reflected education where everyone has a chance, irrespective of your parents income - having a well educated populace is a huge asset and that's seen as a long term investment.
All that said, Germany's economy may be less wonderful than it seems. While the US seems to solve any economic issues by "printing money", Germany props themselves up with exports - that a country of just 80 million people is the world's 3rd largest exporter ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_exports ) is kinda... strange and makes we wonder if something doesn't quite add up?
Having worked for a couple of years in Germany, one thing that struck me is taxes came to almost 50% of my salary. Another impression was my generation in Germany - currently in their 30's - wasn't very motivated toward their own careers. That might not entirely be a bad thing - less of a rat race - but it comes across as a generation that doesn't really know what it's purpose is.
So I have a kind of gut feeling that the German focus on exports is done at the cost of "self neglect".