Reichstag fire
On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler was named Chancellor. Lacking a majority in the "Reichstag", Hitler formed a coalition with the national conservative German National People's Party (German: Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP). Not long afterwards, he called elections for 5 March. Six days before the election, on 27 February, the Reichstag fire damaged the house of Parliament in Berlin. Claiming that the fire was the first step in a Communist revolution, the Nazis used the fire as a pretext to get the President, Hindenburg, to sign the Reichstag Fire Decree, officially the "" (Presidential Decree for the Protection of People and State).