The Dax started a recovery attempt at the end of the week.
The leading German index increased by 0.7 percent to 13,540 points in the course of trading.
The M-Dax of medium-sized German stock corporations gained 0.6 percent to 29,628 points.
The Euro Stoxx 50 increased by 0.3 percent to 3660 points.
However, the analysts did not expect large price jumps.
The potential for disappointment for the stock markets is still very large, since peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are still a long way off, said Christian Henke from the online broker IG.
On Thursday, the Dax had lost almost 3 percent.
In the United States, on the other hand, the major indices were only slightly down.
The Dow Jones was last down 0.3 percent to 33,174 points and the S&P 500 fell 0.4 percent to 4,260 points.
In addition to the war in Ukraine, the prospect of a tighter monetary policy by the major central banks also caused uncertainty.
Investors braced themselves for a rate hike by the Fed next week after US inflation picked up again.
In addition, many investors were expecting the ECB to take more aggressive action against the high inflation rates.
Siemens Energy was one of the biggest winners in the Dax with a plus of around 6 percent, followed by Adidas with plus 3 percent.
In the MDax, Lanxess temporarily rose by 5.7 percent, but the increase later fell to 2 percent.
The specialty chemicals group ended the past year with a significant increase in earnings despite higher costs for energy and raw materials.
As on the previous day, the shares of the food delivery service Delivery Hero were among the biggest losers in the Dax with a price drop of around 2 percent at times.