Last year's World Cup final victory was the culmination of the rise of a generation of German players who first established themselves on the global scene when the nation hosted the tournament in 2006.
Although Philippe Lahm still has life left in his legs, the full-back decided to complete his Germany career by holding the World Cup trophy aloft in the iconic Maracana Stadium last summer.
Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker also called it a day as did Miroslav Klose (who first truly emerged in 2002), while the likes of Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski appear to be over their peaks, even if they continue to accept call-ups.
With that challenge in mind, manager Joachim Low has been blooding a new generation of talent during this Euro 2016 qualifying campaign and some of those players may feature against Ireland tonight.
Karim Bellarabi
The Berlin-born winger now has eight caps to his name, since making his senior Germany debut in October 2014 and also featured against Ireland during that month's qualifier draw in Gelsenkirchen.
At club level, the 25-year-old has played for Bayer Leverkusen, featuring in the Champions League. He scored four days ago in the Bundesliga in a 1-1 draw against Augsburg.
Sebastian Rudy
The Hoffenheim full-back made his debut for Germany in a friendly just before the World Cup but has only established himself in the last 15 months or so, earning himself nine caps.
The 25-year-old had been a regular for the U21s before that and was a substitute when we faced them this time last year.
Jonas Hector (AP Photo/Scott Heppell)
Jonas Hector
Another full-back trying to fill Philippe Lahm shaped holes for Germany, the left-back is a FC Koln club man. He made his Germany debut last November against Gibraltar - which is a nice way to be introduced to international football.
He has seven caps to his name and is credited with two assists in Germany's 3-1 qualifier win over Poland last month.
Emre Can
Well-known to Liverpool fans, the versatile midfielder, who can play at full-back and also featured at centre-back when Rodgers played three man defences.
While the best of Can has not been fully revealed at Anfield yet, his potential is undoubted and there is enough there for him to have picked up a couple of senior international caps since his debut against the Polish last month.
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