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"Not having your factories being bombed" has huge economic upsides.

• inglor_cz 4y ago
  "Having your factories bombed" is, ironically, a huge motivator too. At the end of the war, Germans had better and more modern industrial equipment than the British, mostly hidden in improvised underground factories. What really suffered was the civilian housing stock, but the average German industrial machine was less than 5 years old - to a surprise of the Allied occupation authorities. Both Germany and Japan rebuilt their industrial bases to become export juggernauts. And fairly quickly so. Experience with forced improvisation helped.
  • selimthegrim 4y ago
    I’m assuming the Soviets packed it all up
    • inglor_cz 4y ago
      From the former DDR and territories that went to Poland, yes, they took quite a lot, but the German industrial heartland around the rivers Rhein and Ruhr is located in the West and it was divided between American and British sectors. No Soviets there.