"It is in our interest that our closest EU partner regains political, cultural, social and economic stability and strength," Foreign Ministry’s Michael Roth told the Suedwestrundfunk (SWR) radio.
He said the European Union was a guarantee against crises' and it would be "madness" for France to wall itself off in the manner French presidential candidate Le Pen has been campaigning for.
"We must take political costs of our actions into account. When a policy we advocate helps Marine Le Pen become president, I don’t want to bear responsibility for this," the minister said.
He praised pro-EU candidate Emmanuel Macron’s performance in the recent presidential debate and described him as a staunch European but stopped short of openly calling for support for him.
Roth, who is Berlin’s commissioner for German-French cooperation, admitted German politicians had been "a bit arrogant" and condescending in their approach to France and only boosted Le Pen’s campaign.
