The Germans were among the most innovative people on this planet before WW2 and they had never had a democratic government.
The Reichstag?
Do you really want to make the argument that the Weimar Republic was a bastion of freedom? I suppose it technically fits the definition of "democratic" but the junkers still retained much of the power and when they did not, it was largely ineffective.
Besides, the great scientists that the Soviets and Americans grabbed up after the war mostly matured during Nazism. The gasoline powered car was invented under the first Reich. Microphone, cathode ray tube, diesel engine, sypillis treatment, Einstein's Theory of Relativity, Aspirin, Anthrax, DDT (threw that one in for Prince), four stroke engine, Decaf coffee, Zeppelin, Syphillis test, pregnancy test, the first programmable computer - all invented under non-democratic German regimes.
I'm not hyping the Germans as most cultures have impressive lists of inventions and such lists are not the be all and end all of any cultural achievement anyway.
My point is that freedom = innovation is often claimed, but is it historical fact? Or just accepted because we want to believe it to be so?