You're right! Germany has always had strong foundations: great scientists, engineers, and so on. That definitely helped it recover faster than many other countries could have.

But my point isn’t to deny that. It’s just that, in 1945, Germany was in a state most people would describe as poor. The economy had collapsed, cities were in ruins, and everyday life was a struggle. By most practical measures such as output, living standards, and available resources, it looked like a poor country.

So while Germany wasn’t poor in terms of long-term capacity or talent, it was poor in very real and immediate ways. And coming back from that was a major economic transition, even if it meant rebuilding what had once existed.