What good (if any) do you think Hitler did?

I remember talking to a fellow who served in WWII for Germany. He was a Nazi and he felt that Hitler had done a lot of good things.

If I remember correctly the autobahn was one such example, as was the Volkswagon.

I have to imagine that no matter how evil the Nazis were some good things must of resulted from them.

Israel might be one?

What do you think?

KTK

 

Hi Ken,

the good things were the Autobahn. Where he puts all of the no working men into the Reichsarbeitsdienst. Also like his program to build the Bunkers and fortifications to the French border. The Volkswagen was a good development but it came after the war to the people. During the war were only a few built for civilian use.

Regards

Gunner

 

He had programs to save the whales, eating healthy, funding studies to show that smoking was bad, rebuilt germany and made millions of jobs, got food on people's plates, made people be proud to be german (before the wars end)

 

His "healthy eating" is a joke, he wasn't even a good vegitarian himself. The anti-smoking campaign was a good idea, but hardly effective. His fear of cancer was founded on the death of his non-smoking mother for some reason. Of course his knowledge of medical issues is scanty at best, he went to his grave thinking VD was herititary. As to the rest of his "good ideas".

The KdF-Wagen (VW) certainly wasn’t Hitler’s idea, the making of a Tatra clone in the less expensive style might have been at his direction, nor was the vehicle itself Dr. Porsche's completely either. Hitler and the party kind of took "credit" for it, but only because they could.

Just before the war years, Tatra had ten legal claims against Dr. Porsche and VW for infringement of patents, as VW-designer Ferdinand Porsche had used at least ten international Tatra patents in the design of the KdF-Wagen. They were not yet settled when the Nazis finally took over the whole of Czechoslovakia, and most Tatra automobile production was halted. The aerodynamic Tatra T-87 (air cooled V-8) and T-97 (air cooled flat four) had debuted in the Berlin Auto-show in 1936, Hitler had "pencil sketched" a similar shape (after the opening the Auto Show), which would also use a rear engine, and air cooling and sent them to Dr. Porsche. Interestingly enough, the T-97's 1761 cc engine was the world's first air-cooled flat four-cylinder engine with a chain-driven single overhead camshaft per cylinder bank. Hmmm, no wonder there were patent infringement suits!

When the T-97 was introduced and for sale in 1936 it was perhaps the most advanced small car in the world. But Porsche was still working on the development of the VW KdF-Wagen under an enormous time pressure from Adolf Hitler. Hitler considered the T-97 to be "too similar" (big surprise!) to his own pet KdF-Wagen project which was to be produced at the new Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, even though the T-97 was listed at more then five and a half times the KdF-Wagen's target selling price and had been for sale since 1936 at that higher price.

Consequently in 1938 Hitler ordered Tatra to remove the T-97 from the Berlin Autosalon because of their close resemblance to Porsche’s KdF-Wagen which was going to be introduced at the 1939 Autosalon. When Hitler was informed by Dr. Porsche that he was going to settle the suit with Tatra, since he himself was honest enough to "fess up" that he had copied the Tatra designs, Hitler informed him to (paraphrasing); "do nothing for now, I will take care of the problem." Hmmmm, again.

Here is something "cute", the T-97's big brother, the T-87 (air cooled V8-powered) remained in production during the war years 1939 to 1942. The T-87 was a favorite amongst German officers. Dr Fritz Todt, the German general inspector of the Autobahn network, even proclaimed that the T-87 was the ultimate Autobahn car. According to some sources the T-87 was said to be Czechoslovakia’s "secret weapon", as German officers drove them too fast. This would cause the tail (housing the V8-engine behind the rear axle) to break loose in tight corners. It is even rumored that at one point the German officers above the rank of Captain were forbidden to drive T-87s.

The lawsuit case of the patents was re-opened after the war and dragged on for years, ending in 1961 when VW eventually made a settlement paying the parent Tatra Company DM 3,000,000. Hans Ledwinka (the designer of the T-87 and T-97) never received any money himself and died in relative obscurity in 1967. Porsche later admitted that during the design time of the KdF-Wagen in the 1930s he "occasionally looked over the shoulder of Ledwinka", as the two were friends and shared much time together in their mutual enthusiasm for rear-engined autos.

As to the wonderful Autobahn, Hitler showed up at every ribbon cutting so he could wave and smile to the crowd. But it must be remembered that the first hundred kilometers of the roadway was completed the year before he came to power, all he did was preside over the time-period of its greatest expansion. The Italian Auto-strada was already up and running before the first 100 km were completed in Germany (Frankfort to Bonn?). He did use it as a "work project", which did cut down his unemployment numbers, but his putting people to work on it was also sort of a "side-set", since he cooked the books to make his unemployment levels appear to shrink.

Here is a portion of a post I put up on Hitler and the Nazis "cooking the books" as per unemployment in Greater Germany in the pre-war thirties. And it wasn't just Jews who lost their jobs to make room for "true Aryan" citizens.

Official unemployment went down in the "official numbers", perhaps, so you kind of have to give ‘em that one. Looking a bit deeper, one would be well advised to look in to the "how" the numbers shrunk. Shortly after coming to power Hitler had passed the "Enabling Act" which outlawed all but the Nazi party in Germany, so if you wanted to keep your civil servant job you either became one (a Nazi), or lost your job (no matter ethnicity, or gender). Then in early 1935 the Nuremberg Race Laws were passed which really closed the door for the "untermensch".

So a year after taking complete control of the German government, Jews, Gypsies, and other "untermensch" were NOT citizens, couldn’t vote, were dismissed from any professional jobs they had held, and were NOT counted as either "employed or unemployed"; as they didn’t "officially" exist inside the Greater Reich.

Also married women doctors and most female civil servants (no matter race or ethnicity) were dismissed the year before (in 1934), and from June 1936 on, no woman could act as a judge or a public prosecutor. The year the Nazis came to power there were 18,315 women students in Germany's universities. By 1939 this number was 5,447.

Hitler also removed 800,000 German women, both married and single, from the non-professional work force within his first four years. In August 1933 a law was passed that enabled all married couples to obtain interest free loans to set up homes and start families. To pay for this "state" largess; single men and childless couples were taxed heavily.

Here is another "irony", the day after the first nationally celebrated "Labor Day" (while the unions were parading and celebrating), May 1st,1933; "The German Labor Front" (DAF) was officially sanctioned as the only union organization allowed in the Third Reich. All other union office buildings were seized by the SA that afternoon, their assets confiscated, and the union membership "hijacked" into the DAF. These new "union" members became literally the property of their employers, they couldn’t quit, strike, or change addresses without their employers permission. If they tried, it was a criminal offense. Off to jail (or a KZ). And the pay scale was frozen.

Sounds like a "great union", right? In reality the "living standard" of the great majority of the German people who were not members of the party hierarchy was lower than that of their pre-WW1 counter-parts in the first few years of Hitler's rule of Germany.

The "free vacations" were the window dressing, the workers being the literal property of the factory owners was the hidden truth. And BTW, persons in local jails, state criminal prisons, political KZs, or mental institutions were counted as "employed", this also boosted the numbers a tad don't you think?

Most of what people wish to see as "good things" done by the man are illusions, or outright lies.

 

Wow Clint, Amen!

They were good in selling other ideas to the people as they were from themself!
Good statement! The people believed that he was the great man that brought Germany back in pole position. But all what he had done was only for his plans of the great war against "Untermenschen".

Regards

Ulrich

BTW. What type of motorcycle is the one in your avatar?

 

That is a Harley very much like the first one I ever owned back when my Dad traded a Browning automatic shotgun for it. It was the same Atomic Blue as his own K-model Harley, and we used to ride them side-by each. I was nine at the time, so all the riding I did was on the country roads of course. It was a Harley 165cc Hummer, and while many thought it was called a "Hummer" because it was a two-stroke engine (one of Harley's first), it was actually named after a Harley dealer whose last name was Hummer, Dean Hummer.

That bike still sits in a garage on my Dad's farm, and I'd take money that a fresh tank of gas and a couple of kicks on the starter would make it run as good as the last time my son rode it in 1986. Thanks for asking.

 

I would say the V-2 (Dont hate me)

Only because of the fact that it's capture after the war put perhaps 15 years ahead in rocket research as it was a working Ballistic missile and helped quite a bit in the space race. Thanks to that I may see space colonization in my lifetime!

 

Was Kindergarten developed before Hitler ??

What Browning Auto did your dad trade for the Harley ?? I'm a Browning man, but your dad made one hellava deal !!

 

Hi Clint,

thanks for the answer. It´s a fine piece take good care of her!

Hi Dustin,

didnt thought of it but you´re correct! The development of Dr. Braun safed a lot of time for your space program!

Regards

Ulrich

 

The Germans might have been ahead of the Allies in rocket research but not ahead of the Russians. Even with Von Braun and all of the financing, the Russians built the first ICBM and later used the same rocket to reach space.

 

Hi Slava,

What I was getting at was that the V-2 as a whole had put the world(as a whole) a leap ahead in rocket tech then where it was at before.

 

That was a mid to late 40s Auto-5, commonly called the "humpback", the only reason I know that is my Father-in-law had the exact same shotgun! Actually his was newer than my Dad's, but really the "same" if you know what I mean.

 

Hi Ken

Over 60 million people were killed in WW2.

The only good thing WW2 brought in general, if "good" is the right word were advances in technology, especially in medical technology.

The work of Sir Archibald McIndoe and his pioneering reconstructive plastic surgery is one example.

The Jet engine, Synthetic fuel, the list goes on.

The outbreak of World War Two just accelerated technology.

Maria

 

Then I agree

 

brndirt1,

Yep, I know what Ya mean.... I own a A 500 (last of the humps) and a Browning Gold. Love em both !!

Best Regards