The Reichstag – 27 February 1933

The Reichstag Fire – 27 February 1933 The night of February 27, 1933 loomed dark and grey over the city of Berlin. The Reichstag, seat of parliamentary government in Germany had been closed since December New elections were scheduled for March 5th. The great building was quiet and, except for a watchman, empty. At 9:05 that evening, a student passing by saw a man carrying a burning torch through the windows of the first floor but did not report it. Ten minutes later smoke was observed coming from the building and the first fire alarm was received by the Berlin Fire station. In less than ten minutes the firemen were on the scene but already flames were breaking out all over the building. At 9:30 there was a tremendous explosion and the great central chamber was totally enveloped in flames. The fire quickly raced out of control despite the efforts of the fire fighters and soon only the walls of the gutted building were still standing. Within minutes police arrested a half naked and seemingly dazed Dutchman, Marinus van der Lubbe, who was discovered at the scene. He was a Communist.

The Reichstag Fire "On a balcony stood Hitler, surrounded by a band of his faithful followers. Hitler was leaning over the stone parapet, gazing at the red ocean of fire. Then he swung towards us. I saw that his face had turned quite scarlet, both with excitement and with the heat... Suddenly he started screaming at the top of his voice - 'Now we'll show them. Anyone who stands in our way will be shot, mown down. The German people have been soft too long. Every Communist official must be shot. All Communist M.P.s must be hanged this very night. All friends of the Communists must be locked up.'" - An eye-witness describes Hitler soon after his arrival on the scene. Before the sun rose on the morning of the 28th, over 4,000 communists were arrested.

The aftermath of the Reichstag Fire A shaken President Hindenburg, 86 years old, was easily convinced that the nation was on the verge of a communist revolution. He gave Hitler full power to restore public order. He was allowed to order death or imprisonment for a number of crimes including some newly invented ones such as resisting arrest by Hitler’s SA Stormtroopers. Prisoners could be held as long as necessary without any charges or legal proceedings of any kind. In the last weeks of the election campaign Communist newspapers were silenced. Other political parties had their meetings broken up by the SA brownshirt thugs.

After the Election After the election Hitler passed the Enabling Act which gave him the power to make laws in Germany. On the afternoon of March 23 rd he became the supreme dictator of Germany, free from any restraint from his cabinet or the aged President Hindenburg. He was free to run Germany as he wanted.

Marius van der Lubbe, statement at his trial (23rd November, 1933) I can only repeat that I set fire to the Reichstag all by myself. There is nothing complicated about this fire. It has quite a simple explanation. What was made of it may be complicated, but the fire itself was very simple.

General Franz Halder, provided evidence on the Reichstag Fire at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial in At a luncheon on the birthday of Hitler in 1942 the conversation turned to the topic of the Reichstag building and its artistic value. I heard with my own ears when Goering interrupted the conversation and shouted: "The only one who really knows about the Reichstag is I, because I set it on fire!" With that he slapped his thigh with the flat of his hand.