Official figures show that German exports topped €1 trillion for the first time in 2011, but fell towards the end of the year as the euro zone debt crisis hit demand for goods made in Germany.
Europe's biggest economy exported €1.06 trillion in the whole of last year, the national statistics office Destatis said in a statement. Imports also rose to a record €902 billion.
But exports declined by 4.3% in December alone to their lowest level since April, as the effects of the euro zone's debt crisis increasingly made themselves felt.
With imports also falling by 3.9%, Germany's trade surplus - which had ballooned to €158.1 billion for the whole of 2011 - shrank to €13.9 billion in December.
The full-year data place Germany as the world's number two exporter behind China which posted exports worth a total €1.43 billion and a trade surplus of €117 billion in 2011.
China, along with the euro zone's second-biggest economy, France, are Germany's main trading partners.
On a 12-month basis, German exports to fellow euro zone countries - which buy around 40% of all German exports - declined by 3.3% in December, while exports to countries outside the single currency area jumped by 14.7%.
