Arson of the Reichstag

The Reichstag is the first parliament in the German Empire. Before the modern construction was erected, it was located in several buildings on the Leipziger Straße in Berlin.

In 1933, on February 27, the Reichstag fire was set on fire. Historical evidence indicates that this was a provocation by the Nazis. However, then the Communists were declared the culprits. Nazi propaganda inspired the masses that the arson of the Reichstag was a signal for the beginning of the revolution against the Communists, justifying the expediency and the need for widespread arrests.

The day after the incident, a decree was proclaimed, which suspended the provision of constitutional articles providing for personal civil freedom, the right to associate, freedom of the press, the inviolability of private property and housing, and the secrecy of correspondence. Together with this, the death penalty was introduced for treason to the state.

At about ten on the evening of February 27, an anonymous call came to the police. The unknown informed that the building of the Reichstag was burning.

When the firemen arrived, the building was enveloped in fire. After a while, Goebbels and Hitler arrived. Goering, also soon arrived, told Hitler that the burning of the Reichstag was carried out by the Communists.

Bypassing the structure, the police stumbled upon a man in the south wing, naked to the waist. He made an impression that he was not completely normal mentally. During the search and arrest, however, he did not resist. According to the passport he found, his name was Marinus Van der Lubbe. He was a subject of the Netherlands, was unemployed.

Later, Ernst Togler was arrested, one of the most popular communist speakers, the head of the communist bloc in the Reichstag. He appeared to the police voluntarily in order to state his views on what had happened.

On March 9, another three people were arrested, who were in Germany on false documents. They were: Georgi Dmitrov (head of the Western European Comintern Underground) and Bulgarian citizens Vasil Tanev and Blagoi Popov.

All those arrested, except Van der Lubbe, denied any involvement in the incident. Nevertheless, they all appeared as defendants in the Leipzig process. Van der Lubbe was sentenced to death and beheaded on the guillotine.

Despite the fact that the Nazis conducted a sufficiently powerful propaganda campaign, neither in Germany, nor even in the whole world did anyone doubt that the arson of the Reichstag was a matter not of communists, but of the Nazis.

Later, many facts and details of this case were opened. Rall, a criminal detained in another case, said during the investigation that, as a security officer of one of the leaders of the SA Carl Ernst, he participated in the event on February 27. He reported the minute details of the arson attack. According to his testimonies, Ernst called in a group of people whose members were instructed to set fire to the structure. At about ten in the evening, they entered the Reichstag building through the cellar and scattered an incendiary mixture around it. After that, people returned to the President's Palace. Together with this, an operation was carried out to launch Van der Lubbe into the structure, which, presumably, was in drug intoxication.

Goering, after Rall's testimony became known, ordered Diels (deputy police) to obstruct the investigation and eliminate all possible consequences in the case. After some time, the corpse of Rall was discovered. And later, other participants in the arson were eliminated.

Today the Reichstag is a political center in Germany. Some time ago it was a symbol of the unification of the Western and Eastern parts of the country. For many Russian citizens, this is a symbol of the Soviet Army's victory over the fascists, as evidenced by the surviving inscriptions on the Reichstag made by Soviet soldiers.