Yes, they were. And yes, Germans are and were back then, well-educated. Part of Hitler's appeal after the Great Depression, was fear of socialism and communism.

What some people don't realize either is, the Nazi Party held the most seats of any party in the Bundestag (it didn't become the Reichstag until the 1930s) but not enough to govern in its own right. Hitler was asked by a reluctant Hindenburg, to form a government and the aristocrats claimed that he wouldn't last six months. The Weimar Constitution also allowed him to take the power that he did. Not only did he have people vote for him at gunpoint, but the Constitution also didn't have separations of power. That was how he was able to merge the offices of Chancellor and President and declare himself der Fuhrer.

One of the injustices of the Versailles Peace Conference was that Germany was stripped of domestic territory. Okay, Japan was stripped of external territories after the Second World War, and subjected to occupation, but apart from Okinawa (returned in 1972) and the Kuriles. did not lose territory on the four main islands.