Adolf Hitler27 February 1933
Uses the Reichstag fire politically, presenting it as evidence of a communist threat to the state.
Germany · Government / NSDAP Government. Chronological records rendered directly from the World History Database.
Uses the Reichstag fire politically, presenting it as evidence of a communist threat to the state.
Despite the fact that Marinus van der Lubbe claimed to have acted alone in the Reichstag Fire, Hitler, after having obtained his emergency powers, announces that it was the start of a Communist plot to take over Germany
Thousands of Communists are imprisoned in the days following the fire (including leaders of the Communist Party of Germany) on the charge that the Party was preparing to stage a putsch.
With Communist electoral participation also suppressed (the Communists had previously polled 17% of the vote), the Nazis are able to increase their share of the vote in the March 5, 1933 Reichstag elections from 33% to 44%
Marinus van der Lubbe, Ernst Torgler, Georgi Dimitrov, Blagoi Popov, and Vassil Tanev are indicted on charges of setting the Reichstag on fire
At the end of the trial only Van der Lubbe is convicted, while his fellow defendants are found not guilty
Van der Lubbe is beheaded in a German prison yard after being found guilty of the Reichstag fire
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