Was there a similar desire to colonise or did they feel the need to sabotage their fellow Europeans? Or did they not care?
In particular, did the early pre-German states have apprehensions about the growing global power of the British commonwealth and French colonies? Once Germany was established did this apprehension surface into government foreign affairs etc?
Did you have a specific time period in mind? Because for most of the age of colonization by those powers (let's paint with a broad brush and say roughly 1500 to 1850), there was no "Germany" to speak of as a nation.
Your use "outer corners of the world" makes me guess that you do not mean Germanys role in the scramble for Africa or how they acquired New Guinea, but more of what was it like in the time leading up to German unification. So I interpret your question as Did Germans emigrate to the new world? (yes) and how did small countries (even Sweden or Norway) react to not beeing able to stop the big colonial players from just annexing territory settled by smaller countries. Is that about right?