Evening star., 1933-12-10
VERDICT SOON DUE
IN RE|CHSTAG FIRE.
Trial Seen as CIownish|y
Staged PoIitica! Side
show of Nazis.
BY Gable to The Star.

By Gable to The Star.
LEIPZIG, Germany, December 9.-In
a few days the Supreme Court of Ger
many will answer the worlds query:
who burned the Reichstag?"
The trial of the five defendants
charged with firing the Reichstag Build
here last September, will be resumed,
after recess of one week, next We'd
nsday, when the final arguments will
begins
An analysis Of the proceedings, un-
paralleled farce or tragedy, on which
the court presumes to base its answer,
follows:
Prisoners Marinus Maurer Van Der
Lubbe. aged "a, Dutch tramp pervert,
arrived in Berlin on February 18.
Ernst Torgler, 40, tailor, former lead
er of the Communist bloc in the Reich
stag.
Georgi Dimitrov. 81, writer, Bulgarian
Communist refugee, returned to Berlin
on February %.
Blagoi Popov, 81, student, also Bull
garian Communist refugee
Vasili Tanev, SO, shoemaker, third
Bulgarian Communist refugee, arrived
in Berlin on February "a.
DIR. Buenger PreSideS.
Court-Dr. Wilhelm Buenger. former
President of Saxony, presiding Judge.
Conders, Frohlich, LerSch, RuSch, as
sociate judges.
DR.. Werner, prosecuting attorney; Dr..
ParlSiuS and assistant defense lawyers
DR.. Alfons Sack, counsel for Torgler.
Phulp SeufIert, counsel for Van Der
Lubbe.
Paul Teichert, counsel for the Bull
garlans, excepting Dlmltroy.
What will be dubbed one of the great
trials OF history is approaching its end
after seven months Of preliminary in
VeStlgatlon and three months of court
hearings AS court trial, voodoo
seance would have done as well and its
incantations would have been as cred
liable to what is known as law in any
country with a pretense of civilization.
Solution Guessed.
The trial ends like one of those mys-
terry serials where the reader is invited
to guess at the solution in the next in
stallment. Only in this serial there is
no next installment, and those in al
most every country of the world who
have followed the story can have their
own solution and stick to it..
AS legal trial, the court procedure
was slownishly staged political side
show. Even IN that it was flop, as no
proof was produced that Communists
burned the Reichstag, as charged by
the government. Equally lacking was
any proof, as charged by enemies of
the government, including the London
inquiry of neutrals, that Nazis fired it.
Naturally, no evidence to that effect
even If there is any-could have been
introduced in this court
Inquiry Rather Than Trial.
Earlier official explanations of the
fire were far from the facts, but the
solemn conclusion of the government,
after its seven months of investigation,
that Van Der Lubbe fired the building,
is sufficient to show that the court pro-
ceedings were more an inquiry than a
trial. The states own witnesses agreed
that the Dutch degenerate alone could
not have started the fire, which burned
the big session room and the roof. He
taurant in the southwest corner of the
building, which was quickly extin-
guished.
That there were two fires, simul-
taneously or nearly so is the important
fact. and apparently the only one es-
tablished by the trial. Van Der Lubbe
claims credit for both. Government ex-
perts testified that a certain unnamed
chemical was used to start the big fire.
that several persons must have set it
and that the Dutchman could not have
made his way through the darkened
building in the time before the fire
broke out. AS he was seen climbing
into a window, his discarded coat was
found near the restaurant and he was
arrested in a corridor, his ambition to
have his head chopped off can be graft
fed for the little fire.
Dupe of Real Culprits.
Unless it were pure coincidence, arm
chair theorizing is that the wise heads
who arranged the real fire got hold Of
the Dutch firebug, who had been annoy
ing Berlin with abortive fires for sew
eral days. He was piloted to the window
at the proper time, broke in with a
burning pine stock like lunatic, burned
a few napkins and curtains and thinks
he started a glorious fire He is not
protecting any confederates, either Com
munist or Nazi, because the poor fool
did not have any, being merely plant
for the real culprits, who escaped.
Not scintilla of evidence was intro