Reichstag = Parliament

Fuehrer = leader

Third Reich = Nazis believed they were setting up the third great German kingdom

Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, but…

Hindenburg was still President and …

…there were only 3 Nazis in the government and …

…the Nazis did not have a majority in the Reichstag.

Hitler’s first aim …

A MAJORITY!

… so he called for another election.

To try and get votes, the Nazis used propaganda….

… mass meetings …

… parades…

…and violence.

Then, on 27th February 1933 …..

… the Reichstag caught fire and burnt down.

Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch Communist, was caught at the crime scene with matches and firelighters.

So who set fire to the Reichstag?

Hitler and Goering blamed the Communists …

Van der Lubbe said he had acted alone …

Some historians think the Nazis started it ….

OK, so Hitler used the fire to smash the Communists …

…. but did he order his Nazis to start the fire

…. or was he just lucky?

WHO BURNED DOWN THE REICHSTAG?

“I had to do something myself … No one at all helped me.” - van der Lubbe

“Suddenly the telephone rang. The Reichstag is burning. I thought the news was pure fantasy and wouldn't even tell the Fuhrer about it. After a few more calls I got the terrible confirmation it was true” - Goebbels, in his diary. He had been entertaining Hitler to dinner.“This is a god-given signal. If this fire, as I believe, turns out to be the work of the Communists, then nothing shall stop us from crushing the murder pest with an iron fist.” – Hitler, speaking to von Papen

“That evening Hitler was not absolutely sure that the fire was a Communist plot … ‘God grant’, he said, ‘that this fire be the work of the Communists. You are witnessing the beginning of a great new age in German history” – Hitler in the burning building, talking to a British journalist.

“This is the most monstrous act of terrorism so far carried out by Communism in Germany … The burning of the Reichstag was to have been the signal for a bloody revolt and civil war.” – official announcement by the (Nazi-run) Prussian government , 28th February 1933.

“People should not suspect me of false play. They should be grateful for my action against the Communists. If Germany went Communist the rest of Europe would fall prey to this pest. The attack on the Reichstag was just one of a whole series of terrorist activities which the police are able to prove were planned by the Communists … to be the beacon signals for a nation-wide campaign of dynamiting and mass murder.” Hitler talking to a journalist, March 1933.

“The fire was discovered by a civilian who notified the nearest policeman …

When the people entered the building they found burning firelighters everywhere, which suggests arson. They…arrested a man who seemed to be running berserk in the corridors.” – Martin Sommerfeldt, Goering’s press officer, writing in 1947

“Goering looked at my report. ‘That’s sheer rubbish! It may be a good police report, but it’s noit at all the kind of communiqué I have in mind. And he added two noughts to my figure.

‘That is impossible, minister! No one can possibly believe that a single man can have carried that load!’

‘Nothing is impossible. Why mention a single man? There were ten or even twenty men! Don’t you understand what’s been happening? The whole thing was a signal for a Communist uprising! They must have come through the tunnel.” – Martin Sommerfeldt, Goering’s press officer, writing in 1947

“I suggested to Goering that we use the underground passage because that would minimise the risk of discovery. Goebbels insisted on postponing the fire from 25th February to 27th because 26th was a Sunday, a day on which no evening papers appeared so that the fire could not be played up sufficiently for propaganda purposes. Goering and Goebbels agreed to throw suspicion on the Communists. The Dutchman had to climb in the Reichstag after we had left and the fire was already started. Van der Lubbe was to be left in the belief that he was working by himself. – Karl van Ernst, SA leader who was killed in 1934. His testimony turned up in Paris soon afterwards.