At any time during his reign, was Adolf Hitler popularly supported by the German public?

Question

Please cite sources wherever possible while answering.

I ask this question because in my high-school European history class, I was told that Hitler was popularly supported by the German people at many points during his rule due to the Great Depression and the Treaty of Versailles and how he turned the German economy around and basically just a propaganda state.

When I mentioned this later in my college history class, my professor seemed horrified by the idea and quickly dismissed it saying there was "no evidence" of it. He avoided any further answer on the subject. He told us that he was Jewish when we started talking about Hitler and he had a strong French heritage, so of course a Jew with French lineage would understandably bear a grudge against Hitler. But his answer didn't satisfy me, mainly because he replied angrily to it and didn't go into any detail other than dismissing it as 'ridiculous'.

So I ask here in hope of finding the truth, as Google has failed me.

Answer 1

My grandmother grew up in Germany during the war and she's never had anything nice to say about Hitler.

However she does remind us that communications weren't what they are today. Government controlled the media (newspapers, radio, etc.) so there was no way for the people to get good information other than what Hitler wanted them to have.

She says that you always had to be careful what you said on the street because if someone overheard you say something against Hitler you could 'disappear' during the night. This was around the time she was 16 or so years old, maybe 1933?

Answer 2

Hitler was certainly supported by a large proportion of the German population for whom he proposed simple solutions to complicated problems such as why Germany lost WWI, the causes of the Depression and how to make Germany great.

Although there was never a majority of the popular vote in a free election - he actually got into office by way of a coalition he promptly elbowed out of the way - it's true to say that, until the war began to go wrong in 1942/3 most of the German population thought he was OK and were prepared to support him.

They certainly preferred him to the rest of the Nazis who they soon realised were mostly a bunch of petty profiteering thugs. Many less sophisticated thinkers actually believed he didn't know the truth of what was going on.

It is not, however, true to say that most of the Germans were for the war - it wasn't until it started to look like he couldn't be defeated (after the fall of France) that people got enthusiastic for the war.

However, the Russian reverses and the bombing of Germany put most off. Towards the end of the war, indeed especially once Allied Forces entered Germany, the suppression of dissent became utterly ruthless and it was common for civilians to be hung for trying to surrender with the Allies in the next village.

Answer 3

Your professor is quite wrong and a disgrace to his profession.
Although the Nazi Party was not elected as the majority party in government, once Hitler was made Chancellor by President Hindenberg he set about subverting the democratic institutions of Germany and terrorising his opponents.
Having achieved unquestioned power he reorganised German society to bring employment to the masses and rejected the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
This was the start of his popularity as the ordinary german saw their daily lives improve.
He built on this through his superb propanganda machine headed by his close friend Joseph Goebbels who pioneered many of the tecniques used by governments and corporations today.
He used the period between 1933 and 1939 to destroy anybody who might oppose him such as communists, social democrats and people in his own party who had a separate clique such as Ernst Roehm.
All Germany's former ills were blamed on Jews and, most germans being christians, were happy to go along with this.
His popularity was increased by the successful invasion of Poland in 1939 and the subsequent victories of 1940 when he conquered most of Europe.
This popularity was further increased by his invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 and reached a peak before the military setbacks of 1942.
By this time the Nazi influence over Germany was so complete with the superb propaganda and network of spies and informers that only the bravest people dared to protest about his behaviour

Answer 4

This is hard to gauge as there weren't any popularity polls then and he came to power by basically blackmailing the Reichstag members into supporting him as Chancellor. There was certainly some support for him, though whether it was a majority is hard to tell. Germany was certainly on its knees financially and socially as a result of the Treaty of Versailles and the Depression and Hitler seemed to offer a way to get Germany out of its morass at the time.

Answer 5

Hitler was initially elected into office based on the votes the Nazi party received in the early 1930's. He put together a coalition of parties and was named Chancellor (one of the top 2 posts, the other being president). When the president died while in office, Hitler was able to combine his office with that one, and the Nazis had a stranglehold on power.

It's true that the Nazis pulled a lot of shenanigans while if office - they threatened, beat, imprisoned and killed lots of political opponents and others they considered undesireable. But they first got power through elections.

Answer 6

As far as I know, he WAS popular among Germans. He made a lot of promises of improvement and reform. He was a very talented speaker and his speeches were very convincing. That's why Germans were actually celebrating the day he got into power. And somehow, you can get the feeling he really wanted to improve Germany, and he considred Germans to be the best race.

Answer 7

Hitler was very popular until his death. He wasn't jewish, he was Austrian. Try to avoid the high school propaganda of the winners of the ww2 and read historical books about europe.

Surf in that adress...

Answer 8

Read 'The Third Reich" by Shirer. Yes, Hitler was supported by the majority of Germans all throughout his reign.

Answer 9

Hitler's popularity soared after he wrote the book Mein Kampf (my struggle) while he was in jail for trying to over throw the government. And the Bosch Putch.

Answer 10

I'm sorry to say that I don't have the sources right at hand, but you are correct about both Hitler and about your professor.

Try wikipedia, you'll get some good info there, and probably some source references also.