Co-opted and perverted just as the Lutheran State Church of Germany was co-opted and perverted. Still, though, it's a correct statement. The quality of the aesthetic was unrivaled at the time. Uniforms, propaganda posters, public works, motor vehicles and machinery of war, all beautifully and even masterfully done. It remains a difficult thing for many to even be able to look at anything from the Nazi German era abstracted from the monstrosity of Nazism to this day, let alone when I was in design school. I spent some independent study time on the Bauhaus leading up to WWII. Well, Cuban and Soviet propaganda graphics, too. I was hoping to get at just why the visuals were so compelling. Heavy use of golden section, almost religious was my conclusion. Fold that into cultural touchstones and the easily led fall right into line right along with a fair number who should have known better.
The commies, imo, were not nearly as good at design.
Their army uniform hat, for instance, gets perilously close to being a contender in the Silly Hat Contest.