The figure was as expected by analysts and confirms that Europe's largest economy, which relied mainly on strong exports to weather the region's crisis, ended the year on a strong note.

"The German economy again grew robustly in 2011," the statistics office Destatis said in a statement.

In 2010, the German economy grew by 3.7 percent after a painful contraction of 5.1 percent in 2009, which was by far its worst showing since World War II.

Looking ahead, however, economic indicators suggest 2012 will be a tougher year.

"While the German economy grew very strongly in the last two years, this year's growth will be much lower, especially because of the crisis in the eurozone," Ferdinand Fichtner, the head of the DIW economic institute, said in a statement.

Germany's strongest growth was seen in the first six months of the year, when consumer spending rose 1.5 percent — the biggest increase in five years.

Exports were also strong, according to Destatis, growing 8.2 percent compared with the year before. Imports rose 7.2 percent.

An expert with the DIW institute warned that expectations for the economy in 2012 were dampened by the eurozone crisis and that both exports and imports would slow down.

"Germany's strongly export-driven economy will not be able to elude the slowdown of the global economy," Simon Junker said. "Especially German exports will suffer from the eurozone crisis."

However, the DIW said, there is reason to be optimistic if the eurozone governments "manage to quickly and believably contain the crisis."