By what measure was Hitler a successful populist? He needed other parties to get into power and then a huge suppression apparatus to stay in power.

German cities in rubble and a divided Germany. That's the result of Nazi rule. It probably didn't help Germany's bottom line.

It's decades since I read him, but per William Shirer, by 1939 the Third Reich was facing looming bankruptcy (by turning a firehose of cash on its problems—creating make-work jobs, running a massive rearmamanent program, building up huge armed forces, and bread and circuses). Indeed from one perspective the post-1938 expansion of Hitler's reich was driven by the urgent need to steal money and currency from the neighbours to stave off a total economic collapse.

Like turning to bank robbery to pay off the maxed-out credit cards. (Which works for a short while, right up until you hit a bank with a SWAT team waiting for you.)

Ultimately quite the opposite, and the only reason Germany got back up so well after the war is because it was subject to Marshall's Plan investment on the West, and on the East side was a demo of how good the Soviets are.

The Nazis were very elitist and extended the power and interventionism of the economy to its extremes. In terms of votes they never were popular. They were the opposite of populists.