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trends seem to me valueless, but the estimates of trends of opinion,
though rather bewildering, are, I think, significant. Everybody agrees
that the feeling in Germany was in general very much happier a year or
two
ago than it was when Hitler came into power, and that most people were
far
better off. There was also general agreement, with hardly an exception,
that people in general are less happy today than they were a year ago,
and
that the number of people hostile to the government has been increasing
rapidly in many if not nearly all classes for more than a year.
 
 
 I suppose it is pretty safe to guess that this would have happened
in almost any strong and vigorous government coming into power under
the circumstances that existed in Germany when Hitler began to rule,
for under such circumstances no government could possibly fulfill its
promises, let alone the hopes of a distracted and unhappy population.
But there was, I should say, a general agreement among my informants
that something far more significant than such a normal reaction has
occurred. This has already been suggested in the case of the students
by what I have said, and I think it is obviously true of both devout
Protestants and devout Catholics. It is doubtful if the professors as a
class have become very much more hostile than they were a year or two
ago, because their position was probably already definitively
established at an earlier date. I think there is little doubt that the
wealthier peasants and the peasant proprietors generally have also
become much more hostile in the past year, and my informants were very
emphatic that that is also true of the small shopkeeping class and
similar people. Once more I think it is fair to say that nobody knows
much about the working man. On the other hand, some people say that the
'Kraft durch Freude' activities are having a considerable effect upon
large numbers of people who are about