They were led by a group of people, some very much noblemen and officers, and some well-educated and competent people.

The criterion for success was being defined by the corporal, because in some sense German conservatives of the Weimar republic times turned pessimist of their nobility, their upper and middle class, and, a bit like Russian narodniks would look for rebirth in the way Russian peasants lived (knowing nothing of that), they were looking for rebirth in the propaganda picture of some patriotic and depressed corporal, and they’ve found one.

I’m not sure, but I think I’ve read that various fraudulent schemes built on the German state’s remaining credibility made a bigger input.

Murder of sick people, sterilization of gays, concentration camps, robbery and murder of minorities and whoever else - it was all not as much for practical gain as it was for making robbery and murder normalized in their society. Nazis were really philosophy-driven. Their state was an attempt at deconstructing (can’t find another word) morality, “return” to a picture of some barbaric tribe living off conquest. Where the “weak” would perish and the “strong” would drive evolution.

Eroding culture and morality was their intention, as a means to turn Germany into some tribe which will conquer many parts of the world and change it forever. They were very appreciative not only of their ancestors in late Antiquity, but also of Mongol, Turkic invaders in history.

That doesn’t quite work the same way as a corporal would imagine, though.