In 1943, shortly after the Battle of Stalingrad, Hitler asked in an address, Wolt ihr den totalen Krieg? (do you want total war?) and his followers responded, chanting over and over again, Führer, befiehl! Wir Folgen! (Leader, command! We'll follow!)
Of course we do say „Der zweite Weltkrieg“, but I have no clue when this term began to be used in the German language. Possibly it was introduced by way of Switzerland and the Swiss press.
And to the speech in the Sportpalast: it was not held by Hitler, but by Goebbels, and it was mostly outlining the threat to Europe by the Soviet Union and reacting to the threat of unconditional surrender, which had been pushed through at Casablanca by FDR against the wishes of Churchill, who felt that this could undermine the resistance movement in Germany.
After the collapse of the 6th Army and the smashing of the Hungarian 2nd Army, the military situation had deteriorated so much that the censored press and newspapers could not totally hush it all up any more.
And it was, of course, a rhetorical masterpiece. Goebbels was nearly as legendary as his boss for his oratory skills. The rest was lies, and of course the audience, all of it, was handpicked by Goebbels himself. Thus, the frenetic applause of the audience could easily be construed as an „agreement“ of the entire nation.
Well, those who don‘t live in a tyranny have no way of knowing how propaganda works in one. And how could they? Lucky are they, not to know about it.
And the effect on the run-of-the-mill Germans was not considered great by the Gestapo. They wanted peace. But since when has the weal of the citizens mattered to politicians with their grandiose schemes?
P.S.
And strangely coinciding, that very day, the 18th of February, the White Rose was arrested, while distributing anti-Nazi leaflets in the University of Munich…