This is, of course, inspired by watching Downton Abbey last night (I'm American and only saw the beginning of Season 4, so please, no spoilers!). I was curious to know were they really "the most hated race" throughout the inter-war period or did relations improve at all before Hitler came to power? I'm asking in terms of both politically and socially (public opinion). I apologize if this has been asked before (it seems like a popular thing to ask).
If you have any knowledge of the diplomacy of the inter-war period (basically up to the Nazi party taking power in '33), there were a lot of conciliatory treaties and agreements between Germany and particularly Britain and the US, such as the Kellogg-Briand Pact (agreement to not use war as a tool of diplomacy), the Treaty of Locarno (formalised western German borders), etc. France was understandably more vengeful, not helped by what was seen by them as too weak a compromise in the Treaty of Versailles. This lead to some confrontations, such as their occupation of the Ruhr in 1923 due to Germany defaulting on a repayment. Britain was especially keen to have Germany remain strong enough to trade with, as well as the new interest in a buffer between newly-Communistic Russia, and Europe. So all in all depends really where you came from and what your experiences of the war had been. Sources; Global Society: The World Since 1900 (Crossley, et. al), NCEA history curriculum
The US view of Germany is complicated.
From the social angle I would recommend watching Imaginary Witness, it should be on Netflix. It deals with how Hollywood has dealt with the Holocaust. However there is a large section the deals with prewar attitudes of American business towards Germany.
Basically it states that Hollywood specifically tried not to inflame hatred for Germany and "self-censored" negative views. They talk about how Germany accounted for Hollywood's profits in the range of 20 percent and they did not want to harm that. For examples look to the "The Great Dictator" by Charlie Chaplin as being one of the few films to directly challenge Nazism.
They also talk about the German American Bund and several german orginizations that where homegrown.
for example look at this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:German_American_Bund_NYWTS.jpg
Yeah you don't need new prescriptions that's a Nazi flag marching down New York City. That was a rally of the twenty five thousand card carrying members of the German American Bund.
However over all outside of business, politically the US did not have a favorable view of Germany.
The Smith Act in 1940 required over a quarter of a million GA's to register.
During the interwar years there was a push to to outlaw the German Language being taught. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer_v._Nebraska
Some GA's where pressured to buy "loyalty bonds". http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/1/
As for the Bund well their leaders did not do so well once war broke out. You know about HUAC from the 1950's red scare and Mcarythism? well yeah that was around and back then and its eyes where gazeing heavily on the Bund.
here is a brief overview
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_America
and for the bund
