What % of the Wehrmacht during WW2 held Nazi convictions/ideals?

TinyTartar

Banned
The young were very much Nazi in sentiment in comparison to the old. Not universally, of course, but I'd say that over half of the under 25 grouping of the Wehrmacht likely were either active Nazis or believers in substantial portions of Nazi ideology.
 
Ah that reminds me of fond memories of seeing good old pope benedict being active at work.

Who said the hitlerjurgen was bad for future job prospects?

Someone was bound to recognise his dedication to his job since he refused to leave his post all the way up to 1945.
 
Of course, that is from late in the war when it was obvious Hitler had lead the country into disaster. If you had a similar poll in summer 1940 to summer 1941, the pro-Nazi percentages would be much higher.

We need to distinguish between members of the Nazi party and supporters of Hitler's regime. Hitler was extremely popular. He could not have become leader of Germany with so few challenges otherwise. By 1941, Hitler had overturned Versailles, restored Germany to its status as a great power, restored economic prosperity for most Germans, and defeated France. When Germany went to war against the Soviet Union, it was met with immense public support that the war with the West was not. Anti-Bolshevism was a very popular cause - the "right war" even opponents of the regime could support.
I agree with this analysis but I dont think in the earl 30s Hitler enjoyed that muc support even in the later elections the nazis only enjoyed support among 30% of the population... 70% were either indifferent or not interested in voting for the nazi party. In fact Hitler had no choice but to curb and dismantle the government to take power. He did not sieze power on a mandate but through skillful use of the conservative wing of the German government to his advantage given the communist hysteria that had gripped the nation and then let loose a series of events such as the fire to seize emergency powers for himself in the position of chancellor and then using those powers to outlaw all other parties. That was how he came to power.. not by popular mandate.

Yes he had support but not among the majority of germany. Though i do agree with your point that by 1940-41 most germans were complicit in supporting Hitler and the nazi party.
 
I think a large majority of people jumped on the Nazi/National Socialist band wagon.

If you look at what had happened to Germany since 1918 its no real surprise that so many backed the Nazi's

The Germans at this time were arguably person for person one of the best educated peoples on the planet.

And yet people had been dying of starvation!

They, a young but vibrant nation, that had flourished in the heart of Europe less than 3 generations old had been cast as the bad guys after losing WW1

So when Hitler comes along and starts to sort things out of course they rally to him.

Then when he and his party give them someone to blame for everything bad that had befallen Germany - well yeah that's obviously why we lost etc - damn those Traitorous Jews and Gypsy's for stabbing us in the back

Then when he leads Germany the new emergent Empire and tells the Germanic peoples, that they are the scientifically proven to be the best of humanity and that now its Germany's turn to take their birthright and bask in the light - they followed him with a Joyous smile on their faces and a song in their hearts - because they knew it was all true.
 
Ah that reminds me of fond memories of seeing good old pope benedict being active at work.

Who said the hitlerjurgen was bad for future job prospects?

Someone was bound to recognise his dedication to his job since he refused to leave his post all the way up to 1945.

Being part of the Hitlerjurgen was little more than joining the Pioneers in Stalinist Russia. It is actually pretty meaningless. Unless you wanted to make sure you wouldn't go anywhere in life you joined. Not joining or attempting to join was regarded as suspicious. The question would be why wouldn't you want to join if you weren't a Jew. :rolleyes:

A lot of Germans joined the Nazi Party so they could get decent jobs. A lot of Russians joined the Communist Party for similar reasons. Most were pretty apolitical but if you want a decent job in Nazi Germany you needed to join the party. If you wanted a decent job in the USSR you joined the Communist one. In both case you had a relatively small core of "true believers", a somewhat larger number who were vaguely in favor of it but disagreed in part and certainly not willing to die for it, an even larger part out of a sense of patriotism not being quite sure of all the details of the ideology but knows full well that Germany was run by Nazis and Russia was run by Communists so you join out of a sense of nationalism not politics and the last group is those who joined over opportunism . The last two were the biggest IMO and it is not clear to me which was the bigger.
 
Indeed. I never bought a book and stopped reading it...other than that one. Super boring.

you have to wade through details and statistics sometimes to get the true picture when it comes to history

it is hardly an adventure tale, but most scholarly historical works have the problem of being a bit dry. Historians who can be both engrossing AND brilliant scholars are rare, just like in any field.

Which is why "The Face of Battle" for example is such a gem
 
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