For the first time since 2015, the German hockey men are in a European Championship final.
The DHB selection won their semi-final against England 3: 2 (3: 1) in Amsterdam on Thursday.
"We deserve it, I'm very proud of the boys," said goal scorer Martin Zwicker, whose team will meet the Netherlands again on Saturday (12.30pm).
The hosts then prevailed 3-1 in the penalty shootout against defending champions Belgium.
"That was a material battle that took a lot of strength," said national coach Kais al Saadi.
"It worked out through an attitude, a fight and a good goalkeeping performance."
The second in Group B had already taken the lead after 51 seconds through a penalty goal from Martin Häner, but Adam Dixon (4th minute) also used the first English penalty corner to equalize.
Afterwards, Häner's Berlin club colleague Zwicker (9th) converted the second German corner in margin, before Niklas Wellen (13th) increased the deficit on the counterattack.
Christopher Rühr (15th) even had the 4: 1 on the racket, but failed on the post.
England missed the connection in the third section when the German defensive around goalkeeper Alexander Stadler parried three penalty corners in a row (42nd).
The 2: 3 was achieved by the leaders of Group A only in the final phase with eleven field players through Sam Ward (59./Strafecke).
"We knew that we had a strong defense, but played very well as a team on all levels," said Zwicker.
While the Germans left 15 penalty corners unused at 6: 5 in the last group game against France, this time they converted two out of four.
The preliminary round duel with the Netherlands ended 2-2 on Sunday.