ON THIS DAY

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February 27, 1933:

Germany’s Reichstag (parliament) building in Berlin was set on fire on this day, destroying much of the historic edifice, precisely 4 weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.

The responsibility for the Reichstag fire remains a topic of debate, as while Van der Lubbe was found guilty, it is unclear whether he acted alone. While most historians accept that the Reichstag was set ablaze by Van der Lubbe, some view that the fire was a part of a Nazi plot to take power. Lubbe was guillotined in a Leipzig prison yard on 10 January 1934, three days before his 25th birthday. In 2008, Germany posthumously pardoned Van der Lubbe under a law introduced in 1998 to lift unjust verdicts dating from the Nazi era.

The Nazis attributed the fire to a group of Communist agitators, used it as a pretext to claim that Communists were plotting against the German government, and induced President Paul von Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree suspending civil liberties, and pursue a "ruthless confrontation" with the Communists. This made the fire pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany.

Marinus Van der Lubbe, 1933

Reichstag fire

Adolf Hitler, 1933

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