On 27 February 1933, the Reichstag was burnt down. The Nazi government interpreted this event as the beginning of a communist conspiracy against the regime. The Nazi regime regarded this event as the starting point of a political manoeuvre aimed at taking over the judicial apparatus and thus eliminating the political opposition. Further, this was intended to gain the support of the bourgeois-national conservative parties in the Reichstag to ensure the necessary majority to pass the Enabling Act of 24 March 1933, in order to then disempower the parliament.