The escalation of the Ukraine crisis weighed heavily on the stock markets on Tuesday.
But after the initial shock, the losses were recouped as the day progressed.
In the morning, the Dax slipped by 2.5 percent to as much as 14,358 points.
However, after an unexpectedly good ifo index on the mood in the German economy and some company news, a recovery set in.
In the afternoon, the Dax was even slightly up 0.1 percent at 14,753 points.
Markus Fruehauf
Editor in Business.
Follow I follow
Tim Kanning
Editor in Business.
Follow I follow
Christian Siedenbiedel
Editor in Business.
Follow I follow
The financial markets are unsettled by the geopolitical risks posed by the Ukraine conflict, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has fueled by recognizing the separatist areas of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent regions and sending soldiers to eastern Ukraine.
However, investors apparently interpreted the sanctions planned by the EU, such as the ban on trading in Russian government bonds or the inclusion of hundreds of people and companies on the sanctions list, with relief because they had previously feared worse.
In addition, Putin stated that Russian natural gas should continue to flow.
Russia is one of the major exporters of natural gas and oil.
Oil price near $100
Nevertheless, fears of sanctions and supply disruptions caused the price of oil to continue to rise.
Brent oil from the North Sea rose in price by up to 4.2 percent to $99.38 a barrel.
The oil price was only a few cents away from the psychologically important $100 mark.
It was last reached seven and a half years ago.
Fears of supply disruptions from Russia were the reason aluminum prices in London soared to a 13-year high of $3,350 a ton.
The nickel price climbed to its highest level since August 2011. The rise in commodity prices further fueled investors' inflation concerns.
Car manufacturers, banks and financial service providers in particular got lost in the morning.
The corresponding industry indices fell by up to around 3 percent before a recovery began here too.
In contrast, oil and gas stocks rose.
Investors also initially grabbed gold.
The price of the precious metal rose as much as 0.4 percent to $1,913.89 an ounce, its highest level in nearly nine months before profit-taking began.
In the course of the day, company news then moved back into the focus of investors.
Among the individual stocks on the German stock market, Porsche and Volkswagen drove into the limelight with plans for a multi-billion IPO.
The shares of the holding company Porsche SE took the top spot in the Dax with a price increase of more than 14 percent, closely followed by VW with a price increase of around 9 percent.
Volkswagen is preparing an IPO for its sports car subsidiary Porsche AG.
The biggest Dax loser, on the other hand, was the health care group Fresenius with a minus of almost seven percent after the figures were presented.
Many analysts expect that it is only a matter of time before oil prices surpass $100.
In the course of the conflict, DZ Bank even considers prices of 120 dollars to be possible.
The oil market is discussing whether the oil states see the $100 mark as a limit from which they will produce more oil than planned.
Giovanni Staunovo, oil analyst at UBS, is skeptical: "The OPEC states point out that the oil price is close to $100 for geopolitical reasons and not because of fundamental factors."
Heating oil buyers in a dilemma
What does this mean for consumers?
On Tuesday there was already a rush for heating oil, as reported by the internet portal Heizoel24.
Many people are apparently worried that there could be bottlenecks or price shocks, said portal boss Oliver Klapschus: "In view of the great uncertainty, many consumers are now buying into the rising market." The trading volume on Tuesday was at times four times as high as on average days.
At the end of winter, many heating oil customers were sitting on almost empty tanks and were in a dilemma between waiting and buying.
The price of heating oil reached a new historic high of 97.51 per 100 liters.