Very odd statement to include economical geopolitics here. Do you really believe that German companies lobbied each of the 16 German state-governments to lure in foreign students just so they buy German stuff back at home? Wouldn't it make more sense to influence foreigners directly with this thing called "marketing"?

If you're Adidas, why the hell go through this hassle and conspire with << all the other german companies >> to use the german education system as a proxy for getting a little bit of good PR - not even for your product, just German products in general.

If there's a geopolitical factor involved at all it's inter-cultural relations, which for a country that ruined most of Europe once is a rather good thing.