{"id":3396,"date":"2016-04-22T08:08:42","date_gmt":"2016-04-22T08:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/?p=3396"},"modified":"2026-04-07T09:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T09:19:10","slug":"reichstag-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/reichstag-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Reichstag Fire: A Detailed Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Reichstag Fire occurred on the night of February 27th, 1933, when the German Reichstag building (parliament) in Berlin was set on fire, just weeks after Adolf Hitler<\/a> had been appointed Chancellor of Germany. The fire became an important event in the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, as it was used by Hitler and the Nazi Party<\/a> to create fear among the German public in regards to a communist revolution. However, historians now see it as a strategy by Hitler and the Nazi Party to overthrow the democratic government of Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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REICHSTAG FIRE – BACKGROUND<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s,\u00a0Adolf Hitler\u00a0rose to power<\/a> in the Nazi Party<\/a> and then in German politics.\u00a0 After a failed attempt to overthrow the Weimar Republic with his Beer Hall Putsch<\/a> of 1923, Hitler instead worked to increase the popularity of the Nazi Party and gain power through the electoral system.\u00a0 In fact, Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany, leader of the democratically elected government, on January 30th, 1933.\u00a0 The next major event during\u00a0his rise to power in Germany\u00a0was the Reichstag Fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Beer
Nazi SA members during the failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. (Colorized by historycrunch.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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REICHSTAG FIRE – SUMMARY<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As stated above, the Reichstag was the German parliament building, and was located in the city of Berlin.  Just a few weeks after Hitler was appointed Chancellor, the Reichstag was severely damaged from a devastating fire.  The fire occurred on February 27th, 1933 and the event was quickly put to use by Hitler and the Nazis as a tool for gaining complete control over Germany.  For example, the Nazi government blamed a young Dutch communist for the fire.  Marinus van der Lubbe, who had just recently moved to Germany, was supposedly captured on the grounds of the Reichstag as the fire was burning. He claimed sole responsibility for the fire, stating it was a protest against capitalism. Despite this confession, the Nazi leadership immediately blamed the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) for planning the attack as part of a larger conspiracy to overthrow the government. At the time, the greatest political opponents for the right-wing Nazi Party were the more left-leaning parties such as the German Communist Party.  By blaming the fire on a communist, the Nazis were effectively able to create fear within the minds of German citizens that a communist takeover of the country was imminent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van der Lubbe was soon put on trial and sentenced to death for his crime.  Historians question the accuracy of Van der Lubb\u2019s role in the fire and instead wonder whether the Nazi Party lit the fire itself in order to create the necessary climate for the final stages of Hitler\u2019s rise to power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Reichstag
Marinus van der Lubbe during his trial in 1933. He is wearing the striped shirt and has his head down. (Colorized by historycrunch.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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For example, while Hitler was the Chancellor of Germany he still had to contend with the authority of German President Paul Hindenburg.  The day after the fire at the Reichstag, Hitler informed Hindenburg about the fire and expressed that it was part of a communist plot to take over the country.  As a result, Hindenburg agreed to and signed the ‘Order of the Reich President for the Security of People and State’.  Historians more commonly refer to it as the ‘Reichstag Fire Decree’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Reichstag Fire Decree essentially gave Hitler more authority over German society in an attempt to stop the communist plot.\u00a0 For instance, he ordered the arrest of thousands of German communists and banned the Communist Party.\u00a0 This effectively removed Hitler\u2019s main rival in the next election, which took place in March of 1933.\u00a0 Facing less opposition and having gained the trust of many German citizens with his handling of the Reichstag Fire, Hitler and the Nazi Party<\/a> won a majority for the first time.\u00a0 He had successfully solidified his authority in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Adolf
Adolf Hitler addressing Germany in a radio speech in 1933. (Colorized by historycrunch.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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REICHSTAG FIRE – SIGNIFICANCE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u200bHistorians consider the Reichstag Fire to be a major event in the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazi Party.  It allowed Hitler to remove his political opponents and to centralize much of the authority in himself.  As such, many historians argue that the Nazis carried out the Reichstag Fire themselves in order to create a crisis that would allow Hitler to take over control of the country.  As well, the Reichstag Fire was an important step towards the creation and implementation of the Enabling Act, which was created in March of 1933.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, on March 23rd, 1933, Germany\u2019s Reichstag passed \u2018The Enabling Act<\/a>\u2019 which granted Hitler and the Cabinet the authority to enact laws without the participation of the\u00a0Reichstag<\/em>\u00a0for four years.\u00a0 This allowed Hitler and the Nazi Party to ban all other political parties and Germany ceased to be a democratic country and became a dictatorship under Adolf Hitler.\u00a0 German President Paul von Hindenburg signed \u2018The Enabling Act\u2019 under public pressure of a communist takeover and based on the popularity of the Nazi Party and Hitler within Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Adolf<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Reichstag Fire to be a major event in the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazi Party. This article details the history and significance of the Reichstag Fire and the resulting Reichstag Fire Decree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":29,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[15,56,22],"class_list":["post-3396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nazi-germany","tag-history","tag-nazi-germany","tag-world-war-ii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3396"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5213,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3396\/revisions\/5213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}