It was once pointed out to me by someone who studies these things that the reason Germany had so many engineering brains running around was because they had top notch engineering schools. Germany looked at its' strengths and weaknesses and figured out if it was to survive it had to export, and to export it had to learn what the rest of the world wanted to buy.

And that all started around 1850 or just before then.

From a business standpoint the Nazis took it to an extreme. If you really study the Nazi party you will find it had a great focus on business and how it should be run in order to build a better Germany. Some authors of the day claimed that Fascism was really better called corporatatrism where the government let the companies run their individual businesses while the government laid down rules the companies worked under, such as allocating raw materials from one company to the next. Safety and health issues were not the governments job since companies had to determine this for themselves as well as wages. So.... Slave labor became very popular since it had neither wages, or safety and health issues, to worry about.

Note that Capitalism is just the opposite. Companies allocate their own resources and the government makes rules that companies must follow regarding safety and health and a min wage.

Capitalism has proved to be the best all around because it is the most profitable to both businesses and government.

But back to the question: Germany built a great education system first and knew that innovation, and exports, would follow. So when the Nazis started pouring money into innovation there were a lot of folks around that knew how to take that cash and do something with it.