One of my fav books,
The Rise of Western Germany, Aiden Crawley, 1973. on a shelf just behind me.
It is too simple to say the dramatic recovery was due to bringing in a free economy. But is was surely the biggest part. A culture of industriousness and respect for education was important. East Germany had the above but continued the rigidity of state planning, and gave a lot of support to the Soviets, result- stagnation. I like the story that among the designers of the West German economy after the war were British trade unions, they were pragmatic and knew what did not work, they brought in the supervisor boards on German big corporates, the public and the lefties thought that they would have real influence on corporates, but the supervisory boards dealt only on big issues- the economy, ethics in business, strategy, they were listened to with respect, but, they played no part in actual management. The personality of one man, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, was crucial. He was described by some as a fellow traveler of the old regime but he set an example of rigorous probity. This was a great help in reducing the criticism of free markets by showing they could work with strict fair and limited regulation contrasting with the increasing state controls in UK and France.

dbh- the economic freedom index, I think this is the one that puts Australia quite high, above the US. Now this could be true, if so, then you US guys are in trouble big time! But, take those things with a big grain of salt.

paul's point- yes, one of the few sensible themes in management I have heard over many years was that while motivation, methods, planning etc have their place, nothing compares for unleashing productivity like removing obstacles, breaking chains, cutting the ropes that hold your people back.

Could general commentary. The German economic miracle is an interesting example. A more recent example is Hong Kong and the economic freedom index.