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Adolf Hitler not only had enough support amongst the German people to take power and
hold it for twelve years while effecting massive change in all levels of society, but he
retained this support for several years during a war which began to go very wrong. The
Germans fought until even Hitler had conceded the end and killed himself, whereas just
a generation earlier they had expelled their Kaiser and changed their government
without any enemy troops on German soil. So who supported Hitler, and why?
The Early Years of the Nazi Party
The Fall of Weimar and the Rise of the Nazis

The Fuhrer Myth: A Love for Hitler

The key reason to support Hitler and the Nazi regime was Hitler himself. Aided greatly
by propaganda genius Goebbels, Hitler was able to present an image of himself as a
superhuman, even god like figure. He wasnt portrayed as a politician, as Germany had
had enough of them, instead he was seen as above politics. He was all things to a lot of
people although a set of minorities soon found that Hitler didnt just not care about
their support, but wanted to persecute, even exterminate them instead and by
changing his message to suit different audiences, but stressing himself as the leader at
the top, he began to bind the support of disparate groups together, building enough to
rule, modify and then doom Germany.
Hitler wasnt seen as a socialist, a monarchist, a democrat, like many rivals, instead he
was portrayed and accepted as being Germany itself, the one man whod cut across the
many sources of anger and discontent in Germany and cure them all.
He wasnt widely seen as a power hungry racist, but someone putting Germany and
Germans first. Indeed, Hitler managed to look like someone who would unite Germany
rather than push it to extremes: he was praised for stopping a left wing revolution by
crushing the socialists and communists (first in street fights and elections, then by
putting them in camps), and praised again after the Night of the Long Knives for
stopping his own right (and still some left) wingers from starting their own revolution.
Hitler was the unifier, the one who halted chaos and bought everyone together.
It has been argued that at a crucial point in the Nazi regime the propaganda stopped
making the Fuhrer myth successful, and Hitlers image started making the propaganda
work: people believed the war could be won, and believed Goebbels carefully crafted
work, because Hitler was in charge. He was aided here by a piece of luck, and some
perfect opportunism. Hitler had taken power in 1933 on a wave of discontent caused by

the depression, and luckily for him the global economy began to improve in the 1930s
without Hitler having to do anything except claim the credit, which was freely given to
him. Hitler had to do more with foreign policy, and as a great many people in Germany
wanted the Treaty of Versailles negated Hitlers early manipulation of European politics
to reoccupy German land, unite with Austria, then take Czechoslovakia, and still further
the swift and victories wars against Poland and France won him many admirers. Few
things boost a leaders support than winning a war, and it gave Hitler plenty of capital to
spend when the Russian war went wrong.

Early Geographical Divisions

During the years of elections, Nazi support was far greater in the rural north and east,
which was heavily protestant, than in the south and west (which was mainly Catholic
voters of the Centre Party), and in large cities full of urban workers.

The Classes
Support for Hitler has long been identified among the upper classes, and this is largely
believed to be correct. Certainly large non-Jewish businesses initially supported Hitler to
counter their fear of communism, and Hitler received support from wealthy industrialists
and large companies: when Germany rearmed and went to war, key sectors of the
economy found renewed sales and gave greater support. Nazis like Goering were able
to use their backgrounds to please the aristocratic elements in Germany, especially
when Hitlers answer to cramped land use was expansion in the east, and not re-settling
workers on Junker lands, as Hitlers predecessors had suggested. Young male
aristocrats flooded to the SS and Himmlers desire for an elitist medieval system and his
faith in the old families.
The middle classes are more complicated, although they have been closely identified
with supporting Hitler by earlier historians who saw a Mittelstandspartei, a lower middle
class of craftspeople and small shop owners drawn to the Nazis to fill a gap in politics,
as well as the central middle class. The Nazis let some smaller businesses fail under
Social Darwinism, while those who proved efficient did well, dividing support. Nazi
government used the old German bureaucracy and appealed to white collar workers
across German society, and while they seemed less keen on Hitlers pseudo medieval
call for Blood and Soil, they benefitted from the improving economy which enhanced

their lifestyles, and bought into the image of a moderate, unifying leader bringing
Germany together, ending the years of violent division. The middle class were,
proportionally speaking, over represented in early Nazi support, and the parties which
usually received middle class support collapsed as their voters left for the Nazis.
The working and peasant classes also had mixed views on Hitler. The latter gained little
from Hitlers luck with the economy, often found Nazi state handling of rural matters
annoying and were only partially open to Blood and Soil mythology, but as a whole there
was little opposition from rural workers and farming did become more secure overall.
The urban working class was once seen as a contrast, as a bastion of anti-Nazi
resistance, but this doesnt appear to be true. It now seems that Hitler was able to
appeal to the workers through their improving economic situation, through new Nazi
labour organisations, and through removing the language of class warfare and replacing
it with bonds of shared racial society which crossed classes, and although the working
class voted in smaller percentages, they made up the bulk of Nazi support. This isnt to
say working class support was passionate, but that Hitler convinced a lot of workers
that, despite the loss of Weimar rights, they were benefitting and should support him. As
the socialists and communists were crushed, and as their opposition was removed,
workers turned to Hitler. (Debunking the Myth: Was Hitler a Socialist?)

The Young and First Time Voters

Studies of the electoral results of the 1930s have revealed the Nazis gaining noticeable
support from people who hadnt voted in elections before, and also among young
people eligible to vote for the first time. As the Nazi regime developed more young
people were exposed to Nazi propaganda and taken into Nazi Youth organisations. Its
open to debate exactly how successfully the Nazis indoctrinated Germanys young, but
they drew important support from many.

The Churches
Over the course of the 1920s and early 30s the Catholic Church had been turning
towards European fascism, scared of the communists and in Germany wanting a way
back from the liberal Weimar culture. Nonetheless, during the collapse of Weimar
Catholics voted for the Nazis in far lower numbers than Protestants, who were much
more likely to do so. Catholic Cologne and Dusseldorf had some of the lowest Nazi
voting percentages, and the Catholic church structure provided a different leadership
figure and a different ideology.

However, Hitler was able to negotiate with the churches, and came to an agreement in
which Hitler guaranteed Catholic worship and no new kulturkampf in return for support
and an end to their role in politics. It was a lie, of course, but it worked, and Hitler gained
vital support at a vital time from Catholics, and the possible opposition of the Centre
Party vanished as it closed. Protestants were no less keen to support Hitler being no
fans of Weimar, Versailles or Jews. However, many Christians remained skeptical or
opposed, and as Hitler continued down his path some did speak out, to mixed effect:
Christians were able to temporarily halt the euthanasia programme executing the
mentally ill and disabled by voicing opposition, but the racist Nuremberg Laws were
welcomed in some quarters.

The Military
Military support was key, as in 1933-4 the army could have removed Hitler. However
once the SA was tamed in the Night of the Long Knives - and SA leaders who wanted to
combine themselves with the military had gone - Hitler had major military support
because he rearmed them, expanded them, gave them the chance to fight and early
victories. Indeed, the army had supplied the SS with key resources to allow for the Night
to happen. Leading elements in the military who opposed Hitler were removed in 1938
in an engineered plot, and Hitlers control expanded. However, key elements in the army
remained concerned at the idea of a huge war, and kept plotting to remove Hitler, but the
latter kept winning and defusing their conspiracies. When the war began to collapse with
defeats in Russia the army had become so Nazified that most remained loyal. In the
July Plot of 1944 a group of officers did act and try to assassinate Hitler, but then largely
because they were losing the war. Many new young soldiers had been Nazis before they
joined.

Women
It might seem odd that a regime which forced women out of many jobs and increased
the emphasis on breeding and raising children to intense levels would have been
supported by many women, but there is a part pf the historiography which recognizes
how the many Nazi organisations aimed at women - with women running them - offered
opportunities which they took. Consequently, while there was a strong set of complaints
from women who wished to return to sectors theyd been expelled from (such as women
doctors), there were millions of women, many without the education to pursue the roles
now shut off from them, who supported the Nazi regime and actively worked in the
areas they were allowed to, rather than forming a mass block of opposition.

Support through Coercion and Terror

So far this article has looked at people who supported Hitler in the popular meaning,
that they actually liked him or wanted to push forward his interests. But there was a
mass of the German population who supported Hitler because they didnt think, or
possibly didnt have, any other choice. Hitler had enough support to get into power, and
while there he destroyed all political or physical opposition, such as the SDP, and then
instituted a new police regime with a state secret police called the Gestapo that had
large camps to house limitless numbers of dissidents. Himmlerran it. People who
wanted to speak out about Hitler now found themselves as risk of losing their lives.
Terror helped boost Nazi support by providing no other option. Plenty of Germans
reported on neighbours or other people they knew because being an opponent of Hitler
became treason against the German State.

Conclusion
The Nazi Party was not a small group of people who took over a country and ran it into
destruction against the wishes of the populace. From the early thirties the Nazi Party
could count on a large range of support, from across the social and political divide, and
it could do it because of clever presentation of ideas, the legend of their leader, and then
naked threats. Groups who might have been expected to react like Christians and
women were, at first, fooled and gave their support. Of course there was opposition, but
the work of historians like Goldhagen has firmly broadened our understanding of the
base of support Hitler was operating from, and the deep the pool of complicity among
the German people. Hitler did not win a majority to be voted into power, but he polled
the second greatest result in Weimar history (after the SDP in 1919) and went on to
build Nazi Germany on mass support. By 1939 Germany wasnt full of passionate Nazis,
it was mostly full of people who welcomed the stability of government, the jobs, and a
society which was in marked contrast to that under Weimar, all of which people believed
theyd found under the Nazis. Most people had issues with the government, as ever, but
were happy to overlook them and support Hitler, partly out of fear and repression, but
partly because they thought their lives were okay. But by 39 the excitement of 33 had
gone.