Oh man, that is history.Respectfully, corruption or lack there of has little to do with the advanced posture Germany enjoys. Germany's economic and technological dominance is rooted in two things: mineral advantage and the will of Germany's ancestors to steward that advantage.
Germany enjoys having the purest iron ore in the world, meaning the sulfur and phosphorous percentages are lower than any other ore known. These impurities make iron and steel more brittle and frangible. Having the best steel in the world gave Germany considerable market share and allowed for earlier innovation. It was Germany that invented the first assembly line where raw material entered that line and a finished product emerged from it. Unfortunately, the 100 years war and the bubonic plague ravaged those skilled in manufacture and Henry Ford gets the credit 500 years later.
Germany/Austria invented the stückofen in the 9th century that replaced the beehive oven used since roman times for bloom. It was a German, Georgius Agricola, who researched and wrote De Re Metallica (published in 1556) which standardized manufacturing from mining to finished product. Having the finest materials, methods and standardization produced the highly disciplined machinists, die-makers and research techniques that molded innovation through the 20th century.
This legacy persists today making Germany the technological and economic powerhouse that it currently is.
Their neighbours went out to conquer, and Germany used what they had. In the long run this gave them this technical advantage but I don't think it was a choice.
The envy that the Netherlands, France, Spain caused them with their conquests must have been enormous
As for the purity of German iron ore deposits, I haven't heard, processing techniques are important. I have studied the iron-carbon diagram.