1933 - Reichstag FiresteemCreated with Sketch.

in #history4 years ago (edited)

Adolf Hitler blames the Reichstag Fire on communists, and uses it as a pretext to seize almost unlimited power, setting the stage for the rise of the Nazis

day after reichstag fire.JPG

On the night of February 27, around 9pm, pedestrians near the Reichstag heard the sound of breaking glass. Soon after, flames erupted from the building. It took fire engines hours to quell the fire, which destroyed the debating chamber and the Reichstag’s gilded cupola, ultimately causing over $1 million in damage. Police arrested an unemployed Dutch construction worker named Marinus van der Lubbe on the scene. The young man was found outside the building with firelighters in his possession and was panting and sweaty.

“This is a God-given signal,” Hitler told von Papen when they arrived on the scene. “If this fire, as I believe, is the work of the Communists, then we must crush out this murderous pest with an iron fist.”

A few hours later, on February 28, Hindenburg invoked Article 48 and the cabinet drew up the “Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and State.” The act abolished freedom of speech, assembly, privacy and the press; legalized phone tapping and interception of correspondence; and suspended the autonomy of federated states, like Bavaria. That night around 4,000 people were arrested, imprisoned and tortured by the SA.

Although the Communist party had won 17 percent of the Reichstag elections in November 1932, and the German people elected 81 Communist deputies in the March 5 elections, many were detained indefinitely after the fire. Their empty seats left the Nazis largely free to do as they wished.
Whether or not he had help from the Nazis, van der Lubbe confessed to the arson, was found guilty and sentenced to death. The four other defendants were acquitted due to lack of evidence, but the fire continued to be brandished as a Communist plot.

On March 23, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, the partner piece of legislation to the February 28 Decree for the Protection of People and State. The Enabling Act assigned all legislative power to Hitler and his ministers, thus securing their ability to control the political apparatus. When President Hindenburg died in August 1934, Hitler wrote a new law that combined the offices of president and chancellor.


TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HISTORICAL EVENTS IN the 1930s VISIT History0x

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I thing it was not so bad idea: Hitler have got the power. Some things work pretty well. =)

Yeah , okkkk. The generally accepted view is that Hitler was one of the worst people in the 20th Century, causing the death of millions, tearing apart a continent, and ruining countless lives.

Imagine for a second that you were a Jew confined in the ghetto, seeing all your family and friends perish around you, starving, beaten, raped, then loaded on trains and worked to exhaustion or gassed.

Or how about being a soldier drafted into the Wehrmacht, freezing and scared in Stalingrad, losing all humanity as the Russians encircled you. Death would have been a release.

Suddenly Hitler doesn't seem so cool, huh?

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