Just as a plug for German innovation -- consider the 19th century: if you include Austria/ Vienna, people who spoke German (and were often Jewish) basically invented modern thought, ranging from mathematics to chemistry to music to philosophy to psychology etc. England was great in applied physics and math, France in dynamics and biology, but in theoretical math, music, and philosophy Germany TOWERS above anyone in the 19th century.

It all went south with the Kaiser's attempt to imitate Napolean and then National Socialism; but if Germany had avoided militarism and kept the Jews they basically would own Europe by now (they sort of do even with the setbacks of the first half of the twentieth century).