Above: 27 February 1933: Firemen work on the burning Reichstag Source: Item from Record Group 208: Records of the Office of War Information, 1926-1951. Public Domain, click to enlarge.

The Reichstag fire of 1933 was a pivotal moment in the rise to power of Nazi Germany. It was an arson attack on the building, which served as the home of the German parliament, and it has been widely speculated that Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist Party (or Nazis) were behind the incident. The immediate aftermath and following months saw a massive increase in government control and political repression, with the Nazi-led government introducing several laws that drastically altered Germany’s legal landscape.

The early investigations into who was responsible for the fire pointed to Marinus van der Lubbe, though he was later acquitted of any involvement by a court in Leipzig. However, many historians now believe that this outcome was achieved through intimidation tactics employed by Hitler's government and that van der Lubbe was nothing more than a scapegoat for their own agenda.

Hitler’s government used the fire as an excuse to enact sweeping new laws such as The Decree for the Protection of People and State (known as The Reichstag Fire Decree). This gave Hitler’s government sweeping powers to suspend civil rights, monitor people suspected of being hostile to their rule, and give greater control to police forces throughout Germany. This formed part of Hitler’s overall strategy; creating an environment of fear where opposition could be easily suppressed and citizens had little option but to comply with his rule.

Further evidence of Nazi involvement comes from Goebbels' diary entries which detail how they had planned out what measures they would take after the fire in order to gain maximum benefit from it. It is now almost universally accepted among historians that while van der Lubbe may have been guilty of setting the fire, it was Nazis who planned it and used it as a false flag operation-–or sham-–designed specifically to give them greater control over Germany.

The Reichstag Fire Decree suspended most civil liberties across Germany, including habeas corpus, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, the right of free association and public assembly, and secrecy of the post and telephone. These rights were not reinstated during Nazi reign. 

Historian and author Benjamin Hett in his 2013 work Burning the Reichstag: An Investigation into the Third Reich's Enduring Mystery, writes that through his reexamination of testimonies, archival research and interviews that it was impossible for just one man to set multiple fires in the short time-frame before Berlin’s firefighters had arrived.

Above: Berlin Germany, March 1933. Hitler delivering his speech promoting the Enabling Act (bill) at the Kroll Opera House, following the Reichstag fire.Click to expand.

Hett suggests that Nazi activists had indeed orchestrated and participated in setting the fires throughout the Reichstag building; the blaze was not the result of a single conspirator. Since 1945, historians have contended that Marinus van der Lubbe had acted alone as asserted by the Nazis. Hett’s contribution sheds new light on the fire and the trial’s legal process behind van der Lubbe’s hasty execution. van der Lubbe was executed by guillotine on 10 January 1945.

Recommended further reading
Benjamin Carter Hett’s Burning the Reichstag: An Investigation into the Third Reich's Enduring Mystery, delivers an exemplary in-depth reexamination into 1933’s mysterious Reichstag fire in Berlin Germany. Burning the Reichstag benefits significantly from Hett’s legal background, researching and addressing key legal documents overlooked by previous historians. The former attorney-turned-historian received his Ph.D. in modern German history from Harvard University and now teaches at Hunter College and the Graduate Center at CUNY. Buy on Amazon

Hett’s other work in German history includes Crossing Hitler: The Man Who Put the Nazis on the Witness Stand, (Buy on Amazon) and Death in the Tiergarten: Murder and Criminal Justice in the Kaiser's Berlin.