The Reichstag Fire – a Pretext to Suspend Civil Rights

1. The Fire & Falsification of Reports

- on February 27th, 1933, at 9 o’clock in the evening there was a fire in the Reichstag discovered

- it was extinguished by the fire brigade within two hours, until 11 p.m., leaving the Chamber (Plenarsaal) entirely burnt out

- the arsonist was arrested that same evening, his name was Marinus van der Lubbe and he was a Dutchman who was known in his hometown to be a dangerous and radical Communist

- he confessed and was put on trial

- the fact that the arsonist was a Communist was quite convenient for the Nazis; it gave them a good reason to raise mistrust against the Communist Party ( pretext)

- especially Hermann Göring, President of the Reichstag, and Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda, saw the fire as an attack by the Communist society as a whole, even though van der Lubbe had declared that he had had no companions in his action

- because they wanted to present the case to the public in their way, they falsified official reports by multiplying the number of supposed numbers of arsonists and the number of easily inflammable substances that had been secured

2. Arrests & the Trial

- During the following days, multiple people were arrested in the context of the Reichstag Fire, none of them had actually anything to do with it

- one of them was Ernst Torgler, the chairman of the Communist Party→ he had delivered himself to the police voluntarily, by doing so he hoped to

strengthen the evidence of his innocence and the one of his party

- he was still arrested → he was on the list of the people who were to be arrested in the case of the prohibition of the Communist Party

- the trial took place from September 21st until December 23rd, 1933

- all of the accused except for van der Lubbe were found not guilty and set free

- van der Lubbe was sentenced to death for high treason; he was executed on January 10th, 1934

Pauline KleinOct 2012

3. Aftermath

3.1 The People’s Court

- Hitler was unsatisfied with the outcome of the trial, so in consequence he founded the so-called “People’s Court” in 1934

- it consisted of six senates, these were led by five judges; only two of them were required to be professional

- the Minister of Justice proposed the judges and Hitler appointed them

- the defence was usually an assigned counsel (Pflichtverteidiger) who had to be approved by the President of the Court

- the People’s Court was a political court whose one and only purpose it was to eliminate the Nazis’ opponents

- anti-constitutional: as given by Article 130 of the Weimar Constitution, all public servants – meaning also the judges – should serve the whole, not a single party

3.2 The Reichstag Fire Decree

- official term: Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten zum Schutz von Volk und Staat (Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State)

- presented to the Reichstag on February 28th, 1933 → the day after the fire; became effective on the same day

- the decree invoked Article 48 and referred to “communistic seditious acts of violence” as a reason for the new order

- among others, the decree suspended Civil Rights

3.3 The “Enabling Act”

- official term: Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich (Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich)

- presented to the Reichstag on March 21st, 1933; became effective on March 24th, 1933

- it allowed the Chancellor to pass decrees and laws without the consent of the Reichstag

→ these decrees/laws could be anti-constitutional

- it also allowed him to arrange treaties with other states without consulting the Reichstag

- the law was set to last four years

Pauline KleinOct 2012

4. Conclusion

- with the promulgation of the “Enabling Act”, the basis of Hitler’s dictatorship was complete

- now he had everything he needed to rule the country on his own:

→ he had a submissive court to eliminate his opponents

→ he had no civil rights standing in his way, so he could legally have anyone imprisoned who posed a potential threat

→ he could legally pass any law or decree, whether it was anti-constitutional or not

- he had based the enforcing of all of these steps on the Reichstag Fire and the potential Communist threat that it posed

=> Hitler’s dictatorship effectively was completed by the end of the third phase of his consolidation of power

5. Sources

F. Tobias: Der Reichstagsbrand. Legende und Wirklichkeit, 1962

http://www.focus.de

http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org

http://www.google.de/images

Pauline KleinOct 2012