The Reichstag Fire was not just an event, but an opportunity for Hitler and the Nazi Party to further consolidate their power. From Hitler's perspective, the burning of the Reichstag was a small price to pay if it meant that his supreme rule would be guaranteed: and it was. Let's explore how that happened.
Reichstag Fire summary
The Reichstag fire was a devastating event that occurred on February 27, 1933 in Berlin, Germany. The fire broke out in the early hours of the morning and quickly spread throughout the building, causing significant damage. The Reichstag was the home of the German parliament, and the fire was seen as a major blow to the country's political stability.
The Reichstag fire was a pivotal moment in German history as it provided the Nazis with an opportunity to gain control of the government. In the aftermath of the fire, the Nazis used the event as a pretext to pass the Enabling Act, which gave Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party dictatorial powers. This allowed Hitler to pass a series of laws that suppressed civil liberties and paved the way for the establishment of a totalitarian regime.
Reichstag Fire 1933 background
The year 1932 was politically a challenging year for Germany. Two separate federal elections took place in July and November. The former failed to establish a majority government, while the latter was won by Hitler's Nazi Party but which had to form a coalition with the German National People's Party.
On 30 January 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. Assuming his new position, Hitler wasted no time in trying to gain a Nazi majority in the Reichstag. He immediately called for the German parliament's dissolution and new elections. This new election took place in March 1933 and saw Nazi victory, establishing Hitler's party as the majority party no longer needing a coalition.
Fig. 1: President Paul von Hindenburg
But the elections did not go over as smoothly. The Reichstag was the victim of an arson attack and the whole building was set ablaze. This crime was committed by Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch Communist, who was promptly arrested, tried and executed in January 1934. Van der Lubbe sought to rally German workers against the Nazis, who saw themselves and acted as the primary nemeses of the Communists in Germany. Hitler himself had well-known and extremely hostile sentiments against Communists.
The more you know...
Van der Lubbe's death sentence was to be beheaded by guillotine. He was executed on 10 January 1934 just three days before his 25th birthday. The execution occurred in Leipzig and Van der Lubbe was buried in an unmarked grave.
Fig. 2: The Reichstag engulfed in flames
Fig. 3: The interior of the Reichstag after the fire
Did Van der Lubbe "really" do it?
Van der Lubbe's trial was ill-fated from the beginning. The prosecutor argued that besides the perpetrator's action against the German state, the burning of the Reichstag was planned and executed by a wider Communist plot. In contrast, present anti-Nazi groups argued that the Reichstag fire was an inside conspiracy engineered and instigated by the Nazis themselves. But in truth, Van der Lubbe had confessed that it was he who set fire to the Reichstag.
To this day a concrete answer to whether Van der Lubbe acted alone or if he was part of a wider scheme does not exist.
Fig. 4: Mugshot of Marinus van der Lubbe
Fig. 5: During Van der Lubbe's trial
Reichstag Fire Decree
The day following the Reichstag Fire, on 28 February, Hindenburg signed and issued an emergency decree by the name "Decree for the Protection of the German People and State" also known as Reichstag Fire Decree. The decree was in effect a declaration of a state of emergency according to Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. The decree allowed Chancellor Hitler to suspend the civil rights and liberties of all German citizens including free speech and free press, ban political meetings and marches and remove restraints on police activities.
Consequences of the Reichstag Fire
The Reichstag Fire occurred on 27 February 1933, just days before the election German federal election which was planned to take place on 5 March 1933. For Hitler Hindenburg's decree was the optimal venue through which he could consolidate his and the Nazi Party's power.
Hitler exploited his newfound power by banning leading German Communists from participating in the election. From the first days of his appointment as Chancellor, Hitler and the Nazi Party began a campaign to sway public opinion as much as possible towards themselves. The Reichstag Fire furthered Hitler's plan as now most Germans were in favour of Hitler's Nazi Party rather than the Communist party ruling the country.
The more you know...
Hitler's hatred of the Communists was only furthered by the fact that the German Communist Party was the party with the third most votes after the Nazi and Social Democratic parties in the July and November elections of 1932.
With the decree in place, members of the SA and the SS worked to target members of the German Communist Party and any who were deemed a threat to the German state. Ernst Thälmann, the leader of the German Communist Party was arrested along with 4,000 others who were seen as the aforementioned 'threat to the German state'. This severely affected Communist participation in the elections.
Fig. 6: Ernst Thälmann
The decree also aided the Nazi Party by banning newspapers that were in favour of other non-Nazi parties. This specifically helped Hitler's cause which ended with the Nazi Party's victory on 5 March 1933. The Nazi party had officially attained the majority in the government. Hitler was well on his way to becoming dictator, only one thing remained for now.
The Enabling Act was passed on 23 March 1933. This act allowed the chancellor to pass laws without the involvement of the Reichstag or the President of Germany. In its simplest sense, the Enabling Act gave Hitler the uninhibited power to pass any law he wished. Weimar Germany was becoming Nazi Germany. And it did. On 1 December 1933, Hitler abolished all other parties but the nazi party and stated that the Nazi Party and the German State were 'inextricably linked'. On 2 August 1934, Hitler became the Führer of Germany abolishing the position of president.
Reichstag Fire significance
What followed the burning of the Reichstag gave this event its meaning. The fire that was started by a Communist eventually led to the establishment of Nazi Germany.
As mentioned above, anti-Nazis held that the Reichstag Fire may have been instigated by a Communist, but it was engineered by the Nazis themselves. Ironically, in the end, everything turned out to be in Hitler's favour. This leads to the question, were the anti-Nazis right?
Finally, in his book Burning the Reichstag, Benjamin Carter Hett states that there is a general consensus among historians that van der Lubbe acted alone in burning the Reichstag. In addition, we must remember that van der Lubbe actually admitted that he worked alone, supplementing Hett's proposal. Either way, despite a consensus among scholars, a tempting conspiracy theory that the Reichstag may have been sabotaged by the that remains just that, a conspiracy theory.
Reichstag Fire - Key takeaways
- The Reichstag Fire was started by a Dutch Communist Marinus van der Lubbe.
- What followed was a series of events that led to Hitler's consolidation of power.
- The Nazi Party still did not have the majority in the Reichstag and sought to be the ruling party in Germany.
- The Reichstag Fire was followed by Hindenburg's presidential decree that suspended civil rights and gave police almost unrestrained authority. This was eventually used by the SA and the SS to hunt down all who were. deemed enemies of the state, mainly Communists.
- With over 4,000 imprisoned and communist newspapers closed down, the Nazi Party was set to win the elections of 1933.
- The Reichstag Fire turned many Germans towards the Nazi Party.
References
- Ian Kershaw, Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris (1998)
- Fig. 1: Bundesarchiv Bild 183-C06886, Paul v. Hindenburg (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-C06886,_Paul_v._Hindenburg.jpg). Author unknown, licenced as CC-BY-SA 3.0
- Fig. 2: Reichstagsbrand (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reichstagsbrand.jpg). Author unknown, licenced as CC BY-SA 3.0 DE
- Fig. 3: Bundesarchiv Bild 102-14367, Berlin, Reichstag, ausgebrannte Loge (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-14367,_Berlin,_Reichstag,_ausgebrannte_Loge.jpg). Author unknown, licenced as CC-BY-SA 3.0
- Fig. 4: MarinusvanderLubbe1 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MarinusvanderLubbe1.jpg). Author unknown, licenced as public domain
- Fig. 5: MarinusvanderLubbe1933 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MarinusvanderLubbe1933.jpg). Author unknown, licenced as public domain
- Fig. 6: Bundesarchiv Bild 102-12940, Ernst Thälmann (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-12940,_Ernst_Th%C3%A4lmann.jpg). Author unknown, licenced as CC-BY-SA 3.0
- Benjamin Carter Hett, Burning the Reichstag: An Investigation into the Third Reich's Enduring Mystery (2013)
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