Reichstag fire

[Corporate Avenger]

Reichstag fire, burning of the Reichstag (parliament) building in Berlin, on the night of Feb. 27, 1933, a key event in the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship and widely believed to have been contrived by the newly formed Nazi government itself to turn public opinion against its opponents and to assume emergency powers. Hitler had secured the chancellorship after the elections of November 1932, but his Nazi Party had not won an overall majority. He therefore obtained Cabinet consent to fix new elections for March 5, 1933. Meanwhile, his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, is supposed to have devised the scheme whereby 10 agents led by Karl Ernst were to gain access to the Reichstag through a tunnel leading from the official residence of Hermann Goring, Reichstag president and Hitler's chief minister, who was then to conduct an official investigation, which would fix responsibility for the fire on the Communists. The supposed arsonist was a Dutchman, Marinus van der Lubbe, whom some have claimed was brought to the scene of the crime by Nazi agents. Others have contended that there was no proof of Nazi complicity in the crime, but that Hitler merely capitalized on van der Lubbe's independent act. The fire is the subject of continued debate and research.


On Feb. 28, 1933, the day after the fire, Hitler's dictatorship began with the enactment of a decree "for the Protection of the People and the State," which dispensed with all constitutional protection of political, personal, and property rights. Though the ensuing elections still did not give the Nazis an outright majority, they were able to persuade the Reichstag to pass an Enabling Act (March 23) whereby all its legislative powers were transferred to the Reich Cabinet by a vote of 444 to 94, so sanctioning the dictatorship. A feature of the ensuing arson trial, at which van der Lubbe was convicted, was the acquittal of the Bulgarian Communist Georgi Dimitrov after a strong defense.


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I've always found this rather interesting, especially in the times we live in..

[Snouter]

According to The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, the idea for the fire originated with Goebbels and Goering. At Nuremberg testimony from the Prussian Ministry of the Interior, Hans Gisevius, and the Gestapo chief, Rudolf Diels, confirm this.

It is chilling how a modern, allegedly elected, government like the US can have seemingly similar situations. The insiders who knew the details of the Reichstag were all slain by Hitler afterwards. Nowadays, they would be sure to call them suicides.

Goering had said after he successfully burned the Reichstag building, "This is the beginning of the Communist revolution! We must not wait a minute. We will show no mercy. Every Communist official must be shot where he is found."

Later, Nazi law stated:

...In the present war, in which the German people are faced with a struggle for their existance or their annihilation, the Fuhrer must have all the rights postulated by him which serve to further achieve victory. Therefore--without being bound by existing legal regulations--in his capacity as Leader of the nation....the Fuehrer must be in a position to force with all means at his disposal every German, ...to fulfill his duties. In case of violation of these duties, the Fuehrer is entitled ...to remove the offender...without introducing prescribed procedures.

[Cd.]

Originally posted by Corporate Avenger

I've always found this rather interesting, especially in the times we live in..

History does have a way of repeating itself. Funny how people never learn.

[Lowtide]

Yeah, for some reason my mind immediately jumps to the "Golf of Tonkin" resolution and the War On terror.

BTW: I have a theory that Osama Bin Laden was killed when we bombed the caves... would Bush's approval be as high as it is if Osama were dead?