How popular was the nazi party within germany before the outbreak of world war 2. And how was the nazi party and its policies viewed by the global community pre-world war 2

by [deleted]

Did most germans vote for the nazi party? Did most germans feel on board with nazi polcies and values before the war. In fact how many germans were actually on board with german mobilizarion into neighboring countaries? And how favouring or pro-nazi were most countaries before the war?

jm419

When Hitler was elected in 1933, famously, he won with less than a third of the popular vote. The Weimar Republic (the German government immediately preceding the Third Reich) had, essentially, three different leaders - the President, Chancellor, and Vice-Chancellor, in order of importance. Through some political machinations, Hitler managed to maneuver Franz von Papen, the then Chancellor, and Paul von Hindenburg, the President, into appointing him Chancellor out of a hope that he could be controlled in a cabinet which was not-yet Nazi dominated. von Papen became Hitler's Vice Chancellor until he left the government after the Night of the Long Knives.

To understand why Hitler was so seductive to the German people, look at Germany immediately post World War I. Essentially an entire generation of men was destroyed - Erich Maria Remarque gives an (fictional, but likely influenced by personal experience) example in All Quiet on the Western Front of a school-class of twenty boys, of whom nineteen were killed or crippled by the end of the war. Germany was beaten, badly, in WWI, but due to the Armistice, it allowed the German people to say, "Oh, we weren't beaten - they made a deal to end the war." True or not, this set up Hitler's anti-Jewish rhetoric of the late 1920s and 1930s, which was compounded by the Great Depression in Germany (which was far worse than it was in the United States; a loaf of bread famously cost a billion marks).

This left the Germans looking for someone to blame, so when Hitler said the Jews stabbed Germany in the back and bankrupted the country, the Germans were all too willing to believe him. Hitler's popularity grew throughout the 1930s due to his fiery rhetoric and the commentary of his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, and after he consolidated his power during the Night of the Long Knives, when he eliminated political rivals, there was a combination of fear and hope which reigned in Germany. This was dangerous, as it meant that people either fully believed in what Hitler was saying - look at the Nuremburg rallies for evidence of this - or were too afraid to say anything. This resulted in Hitler having essentially absolute power by the late 1930s, and we saw that this didn't end very well.