Actually a majority of the people did not admire Hitler, the Nazi Party only had about 33% of the vote in 1932. By 1933, after the use of force and crackdown intimidation, they only received 44%, and that was while Hitler was Chancellor.

Intimidation and fear was absolutely vital to the Nazi Party's rise. The Sturmabteilung (SA) was basically a mob of quasi-soldiers that would go around and intimidate people. Once Hitler had been made Chancellor and after the burning of the Reichstag (which the Nazis used as an excuse to murder, imprison, or deport all other political parties) the Nazis were basically unchecked in their reign of intimidation. Germany effectively became a police state thereafter.

EDIT: An example of Nazi intimidation (on a comical side) is when the movie All Quiet on the Western Front was released in Germany. It was an anti-war movie that the Nazis did not approve of. Members of the SA would go to theaters and release rats in the theater so people would run out. That's the lighter side of their intimidation.