How long did it take Germany to accept Hitler as the villain once he was defeated (and died)?

by kicksjoysharkness

I’m curious as to whether losing the war, and Hitler killing himself was initially a mourning or a celebration?

Kochevnik81

This is by no means to discourage further answers, but this answer I wrote a ways back on postwar German attitudes to Hitler, NDSAP and related beliefs might be of interest. Especially:

Only 12% of Germans said they supported Hitler at the end of the war, with 35% saying they never trusted him and 16% saying they lost trust of him at the outbreak of the war, in an October 1947 survey.

However, in subsequent surveys, the results seem to be at odds with this: a July 1952 survey found that a tenth of respondents considered Hitler the greatest statesman of the century, while another 22% considered him a great statesman who made a few mistakes. A May 1955 survey found that 48% agreed with the statement that, except for the war, Hitler would have been Germany's greatest statesman. In 1953, 14% of respondents said that they would be willing to vote for a leader like Hitler again.

So a couple of things - no postwar surveys showed an outright majority of German respondents unreservedly supporting Hitler. However, a pretty substantial minority of respondents did (and this is perhaps all the more surprising given that often these answers were given to surveys conducted by the US military occupation authorities), and a larger chunk of the population thought of Hitler in terms of "good but made some mistakes, notably the war". Although given the state Germany was in after 1945, the war would be a pretty big blot on Hitler's reputaiton.