After losing virtually an entire generation during WW1 why?

Question

did so many of the upper classes and academics think that Hitler's Germany was a good thing?

Answer 1

I blame the parents.

Answer 2

Because Germany surrendered, but was not defeated. Big diference.

Germany lost WW1 because they ran out of resources and will to fight. They still had armies in the field; what they did not have was any food for the people back home to eat. This led to the colapse of the Kiaser's government, and a request for the armistice. The armistice became the peace treaty.

A lot of Germans, especially those in the Army, felt that they had been "sold out". They had given a lot and sacrificed a lot for the war, and it was only natural that they had a hard time dealing with the idea it had all been in vain. It wasn't their fault they surrendered... it was the Jews or the Communists or Labor Unions or the Democrats or the Military Staff or the Kiaser or the Junkers, or the Church or whoever that "sold them out".

They didn't feel that they had been beaten... no Allied Armies had fought their way across Germany and occupied Berlin, some Germans felt that they hadn't lost. As time went on, and people forgot just how hungry and desprate they were, this view became more attractive.

This was one reason why the Allies insited on Unconditional Surrender. In 1945 after the Russians marched into the ruins of Berlin and the Allied bombers had leveled Dresden, Hamburg, and the Rhur the Germans had no doubt that they had lost.
(Nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki had a similar effect on Japan.)

As Bush is learning in Iraq a war isn't over until BOTH sides decide it is over. He had his "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" moment on the Aircraft Carrier, but that didn't mean Iraqis (and the Iranians) were going to quit.

Answer 3

They may have thought it was better than Leninist-Stalinist communism. Your question also assumes Hitler was bent on war and everyone knew it - the second assertion is false and the first is highly dubious.
It was not only the upper classes and academics who supported Hitler. His regime was one of the most popular in history. He made the country prosperous at home and respected abroad.
In any case, Germany didn't lose 'virtually an entire generation' in WWI. Two out of 80 million is hardly 'an entire generation'.

Answer 4

They apparently weren't done fighting yet, and A. Hitler convinced them that it was a matter of national pride to get back into it once again. The nation was in deep economic trouble, and there seemed to be little to lose, anyway.

In order to keep the same thing from happening again after WWII, the US spent a great deal of money to help rebuilt both Germany and Japan. It was a very good investment; people with lots to lose are less inclined to fight.

Answer 5

Well Hitler took the burden of Germany's immediate problems away. It was down to money. He got the country back to work. The fact that the product was a war machine didn't come up for question until it was to late.Oops!

Answer 6

Some upper classers and/or academicians believed in Hitler's Aryan mythos, especially after the hard economic times faced especially in the UK after WW1. You can get some idea of their thinking by reading about Diana Mitford, who married Sir Oswald Mosley, one of Britain's leading Facists. One of her sisters, Unity Valkyrie Mitford (I am not making that up), visited and became a friend of Hitler.

Answer 7

Because Germany was in a bad state and in an economic depression and Hitler promised them better things to come !!.

Answer 8

because he pulled them out of their depression after world war one and restored pride to beaten people. he was a great public speaker.he just wanted to expand the german nation. by taking over other countrys and that was wrong.just think how good he could have been had he been a man of peace.