~A few things come readily to mind:
The idea of the autobahn already existed and some of the roads had been built before Hitler came to power but he improved and expanded system, jobs for more than 100,000 unemployed workers.
He did not design the Volkswagon, but it was by his directive that an affordable car be designed and built, that all Germans would be able to own one. This too created jobs for the unemployed, not only in the car factory but also in the construction of the facility and the related collateral markets.
Through his policies, the devastating inflation and depression that plagued Germany ended. He employment and forged business partnerships with foreign corporations (such as GM, Chrysler, Ford, Westinghouse, GE and a myriad of others - many who continued German operations long after the US entered the war). He engineered massive foreign loans with British, French and US banks (Prescott Bush, father of George HW and grandfather of George W, was one of his leading money men in the US. Prescott continued toiling on Hitler's behalf even after the first US ground troops saw action in the war and while son George was in flight training to go to war). His economic and industrialization policies raised Germany from an impoverished shambles to one of the top five industrial-economic forces on earth in less than ten years.
The abysmal failure of the Wiemar Republic had suffered on Germany endless civil war and civil strife. Armed gangs roamed the streets and countryside at willing, killing and plundering without restraint. Hitler ended that. His means were Draconian, but his results were cherished by the German people. He was loved by the Germans for good reason.
He reunited into Germany regions and provinces that had been separated by a vengeful Treaty of Versailles. To the Germans living in those regions and against whose wishes they had been separated from the Fatherland, this was more than welcome and in accordance with wishes they had previously expressed by petition and at the polls.
He restored a sense of pride, patriotism and national self-worth to Germany through his policies and programs. His anti-Semitism was hardly unique and was well received not only in Germany but around the World (see Martin Luther's pamphlet "On the Jews and Their Lies", where he avers "we are at fault for not killing" the "devil's spawn", or see George Washington and Benjamin Franklin and their efforts at the Philadelphia (Constitutional) Convention, when they tried to expel Jews or, failing that, to deny them rights of citizenship and property ownership by constitutional mandate, or see the Jewish Pale, the Crusades, the Inquisitions, or any number of purgers and slaughters of Jews in the Low Countries, Scandinavia, France or Switzerland over the centuries, or the proclamations from the Bishops of Rome condemning the 'Christ Killers). In fact, in his earlier years he was not terribly anti-Semitic and may well have adopted his views as a means to rise in the NSDAP. As a youth, he had few friends but among those he called friends were a number of Jews. As to national policy, he was supported, or at least not condemned, by German Jews for his plans for the Eastern Jews (at least before Heydrich and Himmler developed the extermination and enslavement programs for the "inferior races" and "ethnically impure" peoples within and without Germany (of whom the Jews were but a minority).
As to the blood on his hands, compare him to any number of other world leaders who have done as much or more. Consider Martin Van Buren, Andy Jackson and Hiram (US) Grant or the many US plots and coups that put into power and/or supported the bloody regimes of the likes of Saddam Hussein, Shah Reza Pahlavi, Suharto, Ngo Dihn Diem, the Samoza clan, Papa Doc and Baby Doc, Osama bin Laden, Mubuto Seko, Pinochet, Noriega or Marcos - and this list only scratches the surface. Hitler is properly vilified, deservedly so. That does not detract from his positive accomplishments, although it does tend to negate them. On the other hand, Joe Stalin was no better, but since he was our ally, he is not so much remembered as evil incarnate.
You are not apt to find reliable information of this topic on this site, anymore than you are apt to find it in US history books. After all, in those books, George Washington is called "patriot" when by any logical definition, and by his own words, he was a traitor and rebel to his rightful government and sovereign and the civil war he helped lead is called a revolution. Reading and finding your own information is not only rewarding, it is a must if want to have any idea about the world in which you live.
Answered By: Oscar Himpflewitz - 3/22/2012 |