Today in History

February 27, 1933

The Reichstag Fire

Marinus van der Lubbe, a former Communist party member in Berlin, decided to strike a blow for the working man. He was most likely acting on his own. With a torch in hand, he set fire to the Reichstag Building, the assembly location of the German Parliament. His act of arson was intended as a statement against capitalism. A month earlier, however, Germany had elected a new Chancellor. Adolph Hitler saw an opportunity to consolidate his grip on the German nation. The next day, on the pretext that the Reichstag Fire was the first in a series of acts designed by the Communists to bring Germany to its knees, an emergency decree was passed suspending civil rights: free speech, freedom of the press and right of assembly. A violent government crackdown ensued with Communists, Social Democrats and labor leaders arrested. The German electorate, whipped into a frenzy of fear, voted more than 230 seats in the Reichstag to the Nazis. Out of fear, the German people traded their security for their freedom. It was the pivotal point in the Nazi's rise to power in Germany.

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