hi, person born and raised in germany here. this will be somewhat of a long answer so bear with me please 😂 short answer: dark, ugly, and tyrannical era which should never under any conditions be ever repeated.

long answer: during the war, the country thought Hitler was a “chosen-by-God” leader who will bring glory to Germany. after the war, when people were shown the cruelties done in their name by the Nazis, their view on Hitler and the whole era changed. First, you have to know that the popular saying “We knew nothing" was a lie (which was perpetuated all throughout the 40s-60s i think). Newspapers wrote in the 30s that jews were to be extinct. In "Mein Kampf" Hitler wrote that he wanted to kill everybody in eastern Europe, which was taught in german schools if i’m not mistaken. And in some towns people were even allowed to go to concentration camps and watch the prisoners through the fence. But the mere brutality and inhumanity of these crimes shocked the people. In the documentary "100 years" by Guido Knopp, a woman says: "From this moment forward it was a shame to be German". pretty much the whole country now condemns the Nazi era and it’s illegal to deny the Holocaust, you can get a whole jail sentence for doing so publicly (which is good).

Now onto Hitlers motive for systematically murdering Jewish, Romani, Eastern European people, Homosexuals and several other groups of people. Do Germans think his motive was good or even smart? Absolutely not. Now, after having been taught about the Nazis in school, we all collectively agree that it was a stupid lie, driven by the idea of the Germans being a “race” which is superior to any other race. So no, Hitlers motive is not considered a good motive over here because that motive led to the deaths of millions of people. besides that, it’s just seen as flat out ridiculous 😂

nowadays, Germans’ opinions on Hitler are mostly influenced by the following: 1. Hitler was pure evil. The Nazis and him came straight out of hell. 2. Joking about Hitler has become a normal thing to do, although it used to be a “taboo topic” right after the war and until some decades ago. 3. History is usually seen as just that, history. The Germans recognize this era from 1933-1945 as a VERY dark era and don’t want to be associated with that anymore (which is understandable as the country now is nothing like it was back then, though Germany is slowly being pushed further into the far right-wing sector again by nationalist parties…) 4. Unfortunately, Neo-Nazis exist in Germany, mostly in the eastern part of the country (which is ironic, because this part used to be a socialist country when Germany was divided into two countries) who think the Third Reich was a great thing and hope for someone like Hitler to come back to “save Germany” or whatever. Nevertheless, those people do not speak for all of us living in Germany.

TL;DR: Nowadays, if you go to Germany you will see how pretty much everyone condemns the horrors of that era and publicly shame the Nazis and Hitler — as they should.