Was Nazi Germany all bad?

Question

Are there any examples of good things accomplished by the Nazis?

Answer 1

Good things accomplished by the Nazis;

1/ The Volkswagon car company, and its 'Beatle' model.

2/ Jet aircraft, and after the war both the US and Russia used the same Nazi scientists in their 'Space Race'.

3/ The Hitler Youth, whose principles were adopted by the US during the Depression. Youths who did invaluable work rebuilding society, by doing unskilled community service without pay, just food and accomodation. In the US, its counterpart organisation became known as the 'Peace Corp' when the replanting of trees around the 'Dustbowl' and other such activities were no longer required.

Obviously, the atrocities far outweigh these benefits in most peoples minds, but most people aren't educated, and simply believe that anything the Weimar Republic did was evil, without understanding the history. Kneejerk reactions, like from most of your respondents, show a lack of knowledge and education. It is good to see a grnuine question from someone who has the intelligence to wonder why the Germans backed Hitler, if everything he did was wrong. Thanks for the question.

Answer 2

To take a non passionate view of Germany at that time is very hard. The treaty that ended WW1 left a big debt for the people of Germany. The World depression of 1929 caused more debt for germany and no real way out. The vacuum left by the government was going to be filled by the Nazi's or the Commies. The Nazi's provided a clearer alternative for getting out of the crushing debt. This is real simplified but they wound up winning the vote. Massive goverment building projects got most Germans working again. The Autobahn was one of the projects. The initial factory set up was to produce more factories (of course these were the ones used for war products) the Nazis had found the way to get the economy going and so this was an initial positive. The project was similar to Roosevelts CC projects Build , Build ,Build. the brutal medical experiments to some degree advanced our medical understanding but with a horrific price. The civilian manufacturing sector usually always gets some boost from war production and experimentation. The end did not justify the mean.

Answer 3

This is a good perspective question.

In a historical discussion, there is no such thing as good and bad. A cursorary review of any country's history shall show that that, even when applying today's mores, no country is all good or all bad.

What is most disturbing is the extremely negative responses of many respondents. There are shared currents between Nazi history and French, British, Russian and American histories. To write off a country as "all bad" threatens a culture with repeating the same mistakes. Example: Watch an old WWII movie and they mock the totalitarian Germans about asking for "papers". Now when you get pulled over by a cop, they get access to an amount of exacting information that would would impress any Nazi. And yet, we keep on going on and making opinions on them.

The Nazis did some very awful things, however, the government was a very popular one. They were popular for a reason, and that included picking up a country from the brink of economic ruin, building up the infrastructure, making scientific advances. They advanced the study of plastics, came up with the idea of the limited access motor way and the jet engine.

Anti-semitism, for which they are severely maligned, was not the solitary province of the Nazis. Anti-semitism was and still is endemic in the western world. By writing off the Nazi's as simply "evil", you blind yourself to our own faults. The Nazi's started WWII. America started its fair share, as well did France, England, the Dutch, Russia, Turkey, et cetera.

Answer 4

Nazi is an acronym of the German word NAtionalsoZIalist for the
National Socialist German Worker's party in power at the time.

Willy Messerschmitt designed in 1939 and built the first jet fighter,
the ME 262 Swallow. Unlike Admiral Yamamoto, a navy man who
understood the potential of Air Power, The German General Staff
thought conventional aircraft adequate and through infighting the
manufacture of the ME 262 was delayed.

A US pilot flying a P-51 in 1944 remarked that when an ME-262 passed him,
"I thought I was standing still." The Red Tails, the Tuskegee black pilots
flew fighter escort to the bombers and not one was lost. On the 1600 mile
flight to Berlin, The red tails shot down 3 ME-262. Not the fault of the plane.
German pilots were undertrained toward the end of the war and the 262
was a real "package" to fly.

Pictures and flight with sound:

ME 262 @ http://www.stormbirds.com/project/index.html
P-51 @ http://www.flightlevel350.com/aviation_video.php?id=3581

First US jet fighter, by Bell, was the P-59A , 1943

". . . rather disappointing, not even up to the standards of conventional piston-engined
fighter aircraft, and by the early fall of 1943 the Airacomet [P-59A] was no longer
considered by the USAAF as being worthy of consideration as an operational combat type."

The term Nazi cannot be applied to all just as Republican cannot be
applied to all Americans. It is a political party.
No, Germans were not all bad just as all americans are not bad.
Nazi and Republican are simply the political arms of a country.
To say the Nazis invaded Poland is close to the same as saying
the Republicans invaded Iraq.

Blanket statements cannot define a group of people or the
people of a given country.

American soldiers have raped in Germany, Okinawa, and
recently in Iraq. And, in how many of the other over 700 US
military bases on foreign soil? Thus, by the reasoning I see here,
all Americans are rapists [bad]. Of course not!!!

Answer 5

All in all Nazi Germany was not a good thing. Too many events passed that showed the Nazi Regime to being Bad. But there were some good things to come out of the bad. ie... Rockets, (V1 and V2 rockets, Me292 {The first jet powered airplane}, Most of the modern medical advances made in the 20th century were because of the works of German Doctors) This is trying to find a silver lining in a pile of crap. Yes if you look hard and impassionate you can find it. But also because of the Germans besides all of the Deaths was Nuclear weapons. Nuclear power is one thing but nuclear weapons are a completely different animal.

Answer 6

the way you ask it, the answer is no. However, Hitler even if he was the ultimate manipulator, gained his power because the national socialism gave people the impression they would and could be strong because they should. Meaning by giving them the belief they were above the others and own the world. Now why did so many people should believe that? It was a time of poverty and in a certain way H.succeed to improve their life a little. That was enough. Don't forget, not all Germans were behind him, though. 37 times, people tried to kill him...
Otherwise, a lot of technology improvement come from them, not only destructive ones.Escapees like Werner Von Brauwn, who was a researcher for B.A. has been a great helper in the spatial research in U.S.A.; now, you decide if this is a good thing or not!

Answer 7

Man is always capable of committing atrocities and acts of genocide are not unique to Nazi Germany. However I do get the feeling that a far greater proportion of people now oppose such behaviour and it is less likely that prominent democracies would be able to commit such acts because of that. After Vietnam and now Iraq I think it is becoming more difficult for countries like America and UK to involve themselves in such acts of folly because of the inevitable political backlash. As for your question. I think it is unfair to compare any American government to Nazi Germany even though some of them have been responsible for some pretty horrible things. And you have listed a few

Answer 8

As much as I hate to give such a disgusting group of people any credit, many of the medications we use today were discovered by Evil nazi doctors through horrible human expirementation. They were alos able to discover ways to heal the body after it has suffered hypothermia because of the expirements they did. The people we certainly evil, and the way that they came upon the information was for sure cruel and unusual... but some of the answers they disovered are still being used today.

Answer 9

There were several innovations made by the German Nazis. In fact if Hitler wasn't such a madman he would be known as their greatsest hero. Their rocket technology still used today, our highgway system was developed off theirs including the autobahn.

Answer 10

I can't think of much positive when it comes to Nazi Germany. We wouldn't have progressed as quickly with jet aircraft if not for the war.