I was in meetings earlier. I'm out now, so I can respond better to the idea that Hitler was a great guy.
In Germany, back in the late Teens, there were lots of what we would call New Age entities. They were all crackpot, but mostly harmless-- crystals, and bastardized Nordic pseudo-religions and crap like that. In those days, you needed a license to print a newspaper. These organizations all had little newspapers.
The extreme political parties were all on the outs with the government. They couldn't get a license. They couldn't print a newspaper.
Along comes Adolf Hitler. He was a zilch, a zero. He wandered between these New Age places, learning about vegetarianism and how enemas would get you closer to God and why we should worship trees and crap like that. He was totally taken in by this stuff.
Along comes the rabid right-wingers. They need a license to print a newspaper, so they start infiltrating these New Age crap mongers. One day the newspapers are touting how to use crystal balls and the next issue BANG! It's all about hating Jews and communists. Behind the scenes, the fascist thugs have come in and put a gun to the head of the publisher. In the middle of this scene is Hitler, a destitute schlump. He's a sponge for this stuff.
The Bavarian police hired Adolf to snitch on the New Age scene, and so Hitler went round to these meetings and listened and reported what he heard. At one point, he got invited to my uncle's Stammtisch, I think it was The Friends Of Antoine Bruckner (the composer) or something like that, and had some beer with them. Yes, everyone says he was a vegehoovian and a tea-totaler, but not in those days. He was still trying to fit in. Adolf spouted all the crap he's been hearing at these New Age/Fascist Rant groups, and my uncle told him to shut up.
A short while later, Adolf had progressed to the point where he was riding in a car giving his famous salute. Uncle Reinhardt thought it would be a good idea to grab his testicles with his right hand and salute the passing car with his left.
"Hey Adolf! Begrüße das!" (Salute this!!!)
Sadly, the guy next to Adolf was Ernst Rolm, the future head of the SA. Ernst took an interest in Reinhardt and shortly thereafter Reinhardt had to go hide in the Black Forest for 10 years. My grandfather saw what was going on and headed over here.
So, based on Uncle Reinhardt's description you've got something a bit more like David Hogg and less like Frederick the Great-- a New Age nerd that just had a knack for saying stupid $hit. Unc found him wholly unimpressive, naive, boring and dull-witted.
