[YorkshireSeason]

   paid the German banks and major 
   private investors holding most 
   of the debt

As far as I understand, see e.g. [1], the biggest debt-holders by far (in absolute terms and even more so relative to GDP) where Greek banks. The biggest foreign debt-holders (in absolute term) were French banks. Relative to GDP the biggest foreign debt holders were banks from Belgium, followed by France. Moreover, Greek debt held by German banks was spread over a 11 banks, rather than concentrated in 2 (Belgium) or 4 (France), hence less systemic risk.

In the light of this data, I do not think it's reasonable to speak as you did above. It was primarily a bailout of Greek, French and Belgium banks.

Aside, if Yanis Varoufakis' account is to be believed, the core reason why Germany accepted the bailout was political and twofold:

* The governing coalition under Merkel had elections upcoming, and staked its entire reputation on the EU and the Euro. A new Euro-Critical party (Alternative fuer Deutschland AfD) emerged. It was felt that Greece dropping out of the Euro and defaulting would be seen by the voters as a vindication of the Alternative fuer Deutschland.

* Powerstruggle with France: if Germany went soft with Greece, it was felt that that would give France an excuse to tap German money even more than it already does.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/jun/17/greece...