Moreover, if German culture has always rewarded more balanced, sophisticated political views, then I am surprised that fascism did take hold in Germany.

I haven't said "balanced". You pattern match against an existing context when I talk about a pattern that doesn't exist in English in the same way.

Apart from that it's true that Nazism was anti-intellectual while Bildung is a value of the intellectual class. Nazism also didn't win in the 30's in a two sided conflict. The political sphere at that time wasn't one-dimensional.