It has been said that if Hitler died September 1st, 1939 he’d be considered one of the world’s greatest leaders.
And there’s no reason to say otherwise.
Hitler was loved because he solved the issues that the German people wanted solved.
Before Hitler came to power, Germany was a ruined rump state, spit on by the world after WW1 and left in ruins.
The physical manifestation of this is undoubtedly the Versailles Treaty, and was hated by the German people. Any undoing of it would be enough to procure support, regardless of anything else that the leader did right or wrong.
Some of the things that Hitler did to Make Germany Great Again™
Hitler booted the oppressive French out of the Ruhr area. After Germany failed to pay for WW1 reperations because of it’s own economic failings, just to become even worse because of The Great Depression, France marched into the Ruhr area and took over its German industry, taking whatever it produced as payment. Germans were understandably PISSED. The French basically used the Germans as slaves and killed over 130 Germans living in the area. One of the first major things Hitler did was move his troops into the Ruhr area, commanding his men to retreat if the French resisted at all. The French did not. The International Community was pissed, but their populations couldn’t care less - to them Hitler was just walking in his own backyard, and as such the LoN had to back down.
(German Army marches into the Rhineland.)
The Anschluss was the first major gain of territory by the Germans, and also a direct violation of the Versailles Treaty. Austrians however wanted to join Germany, if only because Austria’s economy was in shambles. Austrians didn’t feel Austrian. What it meant to be Austrian at some point was completely scrapped after WW1. Even then, Hitler was an Austrian himself. It would be only natural for the people to accept an invitation into the Greater German Reich. In fact, Hitler didn’t even want to integrate Austria as much as the Austrians did themselves. He imagined them being a puppet, and then slowly years or even decades down the line being integrated… The roaring crowds changed his mind, and they were annexed and integrated as if just any other part of Germany.
(Austrians celebrating the Anschluss.)
Another facet of Germany and Hitler’s vision was the creation of a Greater Reich, where all Germans lived. Anything else is a predecessor to a more Extraordinary state. As such, Hitler (before annexing the entirety of Czechia and making Slovakia a puppet-state.) decided to take the Sudetenland from the Czechs, a part of Czechia that was German, and should’ve been given to the Austrians, but wasn’t because the borders would look stupid and the Versailles Treaty was created to make the former Central Powers as weak as possible.
(Former Czech Germans celebrating the annexation of Sudetenland.)
Hitler’s Lebensraum and Greater Reich were almost complete - the only thing he needed now for it to be complete, besides some land in Switzerland and land taken by France and Belgium, was Danzig.
Danzig was a Polish puppet city-state created after WW2 that was 99%+ German. In fact, it even elected the Nazi Party! Hitler demanded this city or he would declare war on the Poles… We know how that turned out. Regardless, Poland fell and Danzig was integrated into the Greater Reich.
(Danzig Germans celebrating the annexation of their city… there seems to be a pattern.)
I could go into more detail about things like the economy, and how the Nazi state was the only successful economy in the World at the time, but that’s for another time. Remember, history is written by the victors.
