Why the reichstag fire was useful to hitler

In January , Hindenburg reluctantly appointed Hitler as chancellor on the advice of Franz von Papen, a disgruntled former chancellor who believed the conservative bourgeois parties should ally with the Nazis to keep the Communists out of power. March 5 was set as the date for another series of Reichstag elections in hopes that one party might finally achieve the majority. Meanwhile, the Nazis seized even more power, infiltrating the police and empowering ordinary party members as law enforcement officers.

On February 22, Hitler used his powers as chancellor to enroll 50, Nazi SA men also known as stormtroopers as auxiliary police. They claimed the Communists were planning to attack public buildings. On the night of February 27, around , pedestrians near the Reichstag heard the sound of breaking glass. Soon after, flames erupted from the building.

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.

That night around 4, people were arrested , imprisoned and tortured by the SA. He talked about Prussia's appeal. What do you think of Mommsen research pointing to van der Lubbe as the sole perpetrator of the Reichstag fire? Send us your comments and please include your full name and country in your reply. Visit the new DW website Take a look at the beta version of dw.

Go to the new dw. More info OK. Wrong language? Change it here DW. COM has chosen English as your language setting. COM in 30 languages. Deutsche Welle. Popularly known as the Reichstag Fire Decree, the regulations suspended the right to assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and other constitutional protections, including all restraints on police investigations.

Justified on the false premise that the Communists were planning an uprising to overthrow the state, the Reichstag Fire Decree permitted the regime to arrest and incarcerate political opponents without specific charge, dissolve political organizations, and to suppress publications. It also gave the central government the authority to overrule state and local laws and overthrow state and local governments.

The Nazi press described the Reichstag fire as the work of the Communists and a signal for their planned uprising. We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies and the Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia.

View the list of all donors. Trending keywords:. Featured Content. With elections set for early March, the Nazis set about suppressing their political opposition. Though the authorities found nothing of note, they claimed that they had uncovered seditious material, including leaflets encouraging an armed revolt. On the night of February 27, passers-by heard the sound of breaking glass from the Reichstag, and soon after that flames erupted from the building.

Police arrested Marinus van der Lubbe, an unemployed year-old Dutch laborer with Communist sympathies, at the scene. He was later tried in Leipzig, along with three Bulgarian members of the Communist International and a leading German Communist.

Van der Lubbe was the only one convicted, and he was beheaded in January Hitler and the cabinet quickly drew up a more permanent and expansive Decree for the Protection of the People and the State known as the Reichstag Fire Decree , which suspended the right to assembly, freedom of the press , freedom of speech and other constitutional protections within Germany. The decree also removed all restraints on police investigations, allowing the Nazis to arrest and jail their political opponents indiscriminately.

That night, the stormtroopers of the Sturmabteilung SA rounded up some 4, people, many of whom were tortured as well as imprisoned. The meeting, which supposedly marked the union of National Socialism with Hindenburg and the German establishment, essentially turned the country over to the Nazis. By the end of the year, all non-Nazi political parties, labor unions and other organizations had ceased to exist.