A lot of western countries, Germany first, believed that if we traded and opened up to those countries, they would naturally tend to adopt western values.
It turned out to be incorrect. China being an even better example. But it was not a crazy assumption at the time, and coming after the fact is hindsight 20/20.
Honestly, even knowing how things turned out, I am proud that the west tried.
You can't possibly tell me with a straight face that your argument is "Germany didn't know that Russia invading 3 countries was bad and it hoped Russia would come around if it just kept buying gas from them and pumping trillions in their economy which Russia spent on its military would make them more peaceful".
It's safe to assume that either Germany doesn't know when to take a hint that after 3 invasions, your trading partner is not gonna come around, or Germany was actively ignoring Russia's warmongering for it's own benefit.
Either way it looks bad on Germany and no made up excuses are gonna cut it.
Diplomacy is not black and white.
There was a Chechen Republic of Ichkeria that existed until getting slaughtered, occupied, and retrospectively written out of the books by Russia.
Yeltsin (and later Putin) was a baddie that West hoped to trade with, so they were willing to push aside the issue of Chechnya calling it an internal conflict.
But in reality the level of Russian war crimes was unparalleled, sometimes even worse than what's happening in Ukraine.
Internationally no high-ranking Russian officials or military officers were ever prosecuted or actually condemned for these war crimes.
Most countries have turned a blind eye and didn't act with urgency: https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2020...
The US screamed so loudly that Nord Stream exploded.
The US has been screaming at DE since the 1980s, decades before fracking and LNG was a thing:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhhorod_pipeli...
* https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/12/03/blinken-secretary-state...
And of course it’s not like AfD actually, exists, or that the German security apparatus is riddled with Russian spies and Nazis.
Nations are not single minded. Political parties, individuals, companies, diplomats, each might have their own particular interest.
But I remember not long ago, "trade and free market will bring democratic institutions" being a pretty popular opinion.