The World at War The Reichstag fire by Soren Swigart The night of February 27, 1933 loomed dark and gray over the city of Berlin. The Reichstag, seat of parliamentary government in Germany had been in recess since December of the preceding year. New elections were scheduled for March 5th. The great building was quiet and except for a watchman, empty. At 9:05 that evening, a student passing by saw a man carrying a burning torch through the windows of the first floor but did not report it. Ten minutes later smoke was observed coming from the building and the first fire alarm was received by the Berlin Fire station. In less than ten minutes the firemen were on the scene but already flames were breaking out all over the building. At 9:30 there was a tremendous explosion and the great central chamber was totally enveloped in flames. The fire quickly raced out of control despite the efforts of the fire fighters and soon only the walls of the gutted building were still standing. Within minutes police arrested a half naked and seemingly dazed Dutchman, Marinus van der Lubbe, who was discovered at the scene.

It wasn't long before Chancellor Hitler and Prussian Minister Göring arrived amid a flurry of reporters and photographers. Although he had just stepped out of his car, Göring at once accused the communists of setting the fire. The debate over who set the fire continues and may never be solved to everyone's satisfaction. Despite attempts to support the case against van der Lubbe, who was tried and executed for the crime, a great deal of evidence collected and analyzed by Walther Hofer of Bern points in the direction of a SA/SS Sondergruppe headed by Reinhard Heydrich and an official of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior, Kurt Dalüge. Less important than the cause of the fire however was the result. Before the sun rose on the morning of the 28th, over 4,000 communists and a miscellany of intellectuals and professional men who had incurred the wrath of the Nazi Party were arrested. A shaken President Hindenburg, 86 years old, was easily convinced that the nation was on the verge of a communist revolution, was induced by Hitler to sign an emergency decree suspending the basic rights of the citizens for the duration of the emergency.

This decree also authorized the Reich government to assume full powers in any federal state whose government proved unable to restore public order, ordered death or imprisonment for a number of crimes including some newly invented such as resistance to the decree itself. The decree did not include any provision guaranteeing an arrested person a quick hearing, access to legal counsel, or redress for false arrest. Those arrested often found their detention extended indefinitely without legal proceedings of any kind. On March 2, Hitler was asked by a corespondent of the Daily Express whether the suspension of liberties was permanent. He answered in the negative saying that full rights would be restored as soon as the Communist danger was over. The reality was that the decree of February 28th established what would become the normal order of things under National Socialism - arrest on suspicion, imprisonment without trial, the horrors of the concentration camps. This condition would persist until the end of the Third Reich. Immediately after its promulgation the decree was turned against the real and fancied enemies of the Nazi Party. In the last weeks of the election campaign the Marxist press was silenced.

The Social Democrats found it impossible to campaign effectively and even respected Center party politicians like former Reich Chancellor Heinrich Bruning had their meetings broken up by brownshirted SA thugs. Despite this the Nazi Party fell far short of the two thirds majority needed to change the constitution. Hitler now showed his contempt for the rule of law by turning the decree of February 28th against those states where significant opposition still existed. Using the argument that local authorities were unable to maintain order, which was in the main being disrupted by drunken brownshirts and SS members, the government replaced the legally constituted governments of Wurttemburg, Baden, Bremen, Hamburg, Lubeck, Saxony, Hessen and Bavaria. Soon, with the support of the Center, Catholic and Bavarian Peoples Parties, the Nazis gained the passage of the Enabling Act, and Adolf Hitler on the afternoon of March 23rd, became the supreme dictator of Germany, free from any restraint from his cabinet or the aged President Hindenburg and free to mold Germany into the nightmare state of his darkest dreams.

The Reichstag Fire of 1933 - History Learning Site Home » Nazi Germany » The Reichstag Fire of 1933 The Reichstag Fire of 1933 Citation: C N Trueman "The Reichstag Fire of 1933" historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 9 Mar 2015. 16 Aug 2016. The Reichstag Fire of 1933 The Reichstag fire took place on February 27th1933. The Reichstag building was where Germany’s parliament sat and the fire that destroyed it has to be seen as one of the defining moments in the early days of Nazi Germany . The Reichstag was the heart of German politics. Debates, political struggles, political scheming etc. all took place in the Reichstag. It was no different from many national government buildings in Europe and its destruction would have had great symbolic significance for many. Hitler had made it clear in the days immediately prior to January 30th1933 that he would not be able to work with the Reichstag that had been elected in the November 1932 election.

While the Nazi Party was the largest single party in it, this did not give Hitler a working majority as the two largest parties after the Nazis were both on the left – the Social Democrat Party and the Communist. New elections for the Reichstag had been called for March 5th 1933. The danger for Hitler was that he might not get as much support in the new election as in the previous one. He was playing a dangerous political game that could have ended his political career. On the night of February 27th Hitler and Goebbels were having dinner at Goebbel’s Berlin home. Just after 21.00, Goebbels received a phone call from Dr. Hansfstaengl that the Reichstag building was on fire. Goebbels later claimed that he felt the news was so fanciful that he did not inform Hitler even though he was in the same house. It was only when he received another phone call that confirmed the news, that Goebbels informed Hitler. They immediately left for the Reichstag where they met Goering . All three declared that the fire was the work of the Communists and Socialists and the SA was put on alert to maintain order if and when the communist insurrection started.

Rudolf Diels, head of the Prussian Political Police, arrived after Hitler, Goebbels and Goering. Diels later claimed that Goering told him that the fire was the start of a communist revolt and that “not a moment must be lost.” Diels claimed that Hitler completely lost his temper and shouted “as I have never seen him do before” that he would show no mercy to those responsible. Diels claimed that Hitler ordered that every communist official should be “shot where he is found” and that “communist deputies must be hanged this very night”. It is said that Hitler also ordered no leniency for the Social Democrats. (‘Lucifer ante Portas’ by Diels published in 1950). The SA did what was required of it and rounded up as many communists as they could find – nearly 4000 people. “Arrests upon arrests. Now the Red pest is being thoroughly rooted out.” (Goebbels) As with nearly all that they did, the Nazis tried to put a legal gloss over what was being done.

The public was told that the communists had burned down the seat of government in Germany and that the police and the SA were doing all that they could to save the nation from unrest and catastrophe. The Nazis also captured the alleged perpetrator of the crime – a Dutch communist called Marius van der Lubbe. He, along with four other communists, was charged with arson. The four others were later acquitted but van der Lubbe had to stand trial. Curiously during his interrogation by the Prussian Political Police in the immediate aftermath of the fire, van der Lubbe offered a free and full confession that Rudolf Diels found so fanciful that he refused to accept it, describing van der Lubbe as a “maniac”. Diels claimed that when he reported his views to Hitler, he was told that they were “childish” and wrong. It was Hitler’s way of telling Diels that van der Lubbe’s confession had to stand. Van der Lubbe claimed that he was angry with the way communists were being treated in Germany. “I had to do something myself. I considered arson a suitable method. I did not wish to harm private people but something belonging to the system itself. I decided on the Reichstag.

As to the question of whether I acted alone, I declare emphatically that this was the case.” He was accused of starting at least twelve fires in the Reichstag and put on trial in late November. On This Day: German Reichstag is burned down, prompting Hitler to begin dictatorship On This Day: German Reichstag is burned down, prompting Hitler to begin dictatorship Julian Gavaghan Pin it Share FEBRUARY 27, 1933: The German Reichstag was burned down on this day in 1933 – prompting Nazi leader Adolf Hitler to crack down on opponents and begin his dictatorship. The arson attack on the Berlin parliament building was blamed on communists – and Dutchman Marinus van der Lubbe was controversially executed for the crime. However, some historians believe the Nazis ordered the inferno in a bid to do away with democracy and cement their control of the country. The fire, which began in the assembly chamber at around 9pm, completely gutted the late Victorian building – as seen in a British Pathé newsreel. Hitler, who had been made chancellor only a month earlier after his party’s November 1932 election victory, used the crisis to help him seize power.

He asked President Paul von Hindenburg, who had been Germany’s top general during the First World War, to introduce martial law in the Reichstag Fire Decree. Hitler claimed that suspending civil liberties was necessary to counter the 'ruthless confrontation of the Communist Party of Germany.' Hindenburg, who appointed Hitler as chancellor in the hope that a brief spell in office would weaken his public appeal, reluctantly agreed. Days later - in an election that had already been planned for March 5, 1933 - the Nazi leader further cashed in on fears of a red revolution. The Nazis’ share of the national vote increased from 33% to 43 - and reversed their earlier losses to the communists, who until the fire looked set to overtake the fascists. View photos [On This Day: Germany invades Poland] He bypassed a two-thirds support requirement by having communist deputies – who held 12% of the 647 seats - suspended under the emergency decree. And many Social Democrats - the No 2 party with 18% of seats and the only group to vote against the measure – were kept away after being intimidated by Nazi thugs.

Other smaller parties were persuaded of the need to change the Weimar Republic’s constitution – and the Enabling Act passed easily in a vote on March 23. Hitler used his powers to abolish democracy – and officially seized dictatorial powers and became Führer of the Third Reich, after holding a rigged election in November. The Nazi – or National Socialist German Workers’ Party – the only option on the ballot other than 'against', received 92% backing with 39.6million votes. View photos Historians find 'proof' that Nazis burnt Reichstag - Telegraph Historians find 'proof' that Nazis burnt Reichstag By Tony Paterson in Berlin 12:00AM BST 15 Apr 2001 THE first documentary evidence has emerged to support the view that the Nazis started the 1933 Reichstag fire that Hitler used as a pretext to establish a dictatorship. While historians have agreed that there is no substance to Nazi claims that German Communists were to blame for the blaze, there has also been a lack of evidence to back the widely held belief that Hitler's supporters burnt down the parliament building in Berlin.

After poring over 50,000 pages of hitherto unexamined documents from former East German and Soviet archives, four leading German historians have now concluded that the fire was a Nazi plot. Marinus van der Lubbe, 24, a pro-Communist Dutch labourer, was beheaded by the Nazis after admitting that he started the blaze alone to encourage a workers' uprising. The news magazine Der Spiegel backed this version of events in the 1960s after a wide-ranging investigation. Now, however, the four historians argue that Der Spiegel's coverage was part of a cover-up by Nazi sympathisers to protect the culprits from prosecution. Their findings put them at odds with other leading academics. They base their case on remarks by Adolf Rall, a thief and Nazi stormtrooper, whose body was found in woods near Berlin in November 1933. Rall is said to have told prosecutors of a meeting of the SA stormtroopers during which the SA leader, Karl Ernst, ordered them to enter the Reichstag through a tunnel and sprinkle flammable liquid inside. Related Articles Ernst is said to have told his men that an excuse was needed to begin attacking Communists.

Hitler used the fire to justify the arrest and torture of 25,000 Left-wing activists and to pass an emergency decree establishing absolute Nazi authority. According to the historians, a former stormtrooper working in the jail where Rall was serving a sentence, heard of his statement and tipped off the SA. Its leaders are then said to have arranged for the statements to be destroyed by accomplices in the prosecutors' office and for him to be murdered. His remarks however are said to have been referred to in other papers found in the archives. The four historians - Hersch Fischler, Jurgen Schmaedeke, Alexander Bahar and Wilfred Kugel - say Nazi complicity in the blaze was kept secret by ex-Nazi journalists after the war. Der Spiegel's investigation in the 1960s was led by the historical researcher Fritz Tobias. His findings have been backed by the historian Hans Mommsen and are supported by one of his British counterparts, Ian Kershaw, in his recent work Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris.

The historians - writing in the journal Historische Zeitschrift - accuse Mr Tobias of "wanting to dispel the odium of arson from National Socialism" through his claims. Mr Tobias has defended himself, saying: "I was born into a Social Democratic household and am the last person to want to exculpate Hitler and his consorts." Last week, Der Spiegel published a 10-page rebuttal of the four historians' conclusions. It said: "The thesis which holds that van der Lubbe was the only arsonist involved remains the most plausible explanation." Although Mr Tobias was not an ex-Nazi, the magazine conceded that other former members had been employed.

Reichstag Fire: pretext for dictatorship Reichstag Fire: pretext for dictatorship "History doesn't repeat, but sometimes it rhymes" -- paraphrase of comments made by Mark Twain (American patriot and anti-imperialist) "The government will make use of these powers only insofar as they are essential for carrying out vitally necessary measures...The number of cases in which an internal necessity exists for having recourse to such a law is in itself a limited one." -- Adolf Hitler, promise to the Reichstag (Parliament) on the occasion of the imposition of "temporary" dictatorship following the "Reichstag Fire." What was the Reichstag Fire? Parallels between the Third Reich and the Bush Regime 9/11 and the Reichstag Fire Poland 1939, Iraq 2003 Holocaust Denial used to discredit 9/11 skeptics Not See's and Nazis: Psychological Denial about 9/11 complicity On February 27, 1933, after Hitler came to power, the Nazis burned down the Reichstag (Parliament) building and blamed it on the Communists to justify a "temporary" suspension of civil liberties to cope with the terrorist threat.

This is how Hitler became an absolute dictator. The "temporary" suspension of freedom lasted until Germany was in ruins. The most likely scenario for 9/11 is "Hijacking the Hijackers with Remote Control," explained in detail at Understanding the Paradigms of 9/11 In summary, an early incarnation of 9/11 called "Bojinka" was intercepted and stopped in 1995 (terrorists planning it were arrested and tortured in the Phillippines). Mainstream news sources admit that several of the "hijackers" were given training on US military bases. The "Able Danger" defense intelligence program tracked Mohammed Atta and other plotters years before 9/11. On the big day, it is extremely unlikely that the alleged hijackers would have been able to perform the 270 degree spiral into the nearly empty part of the Pentagon . And it wasn't anyone Islamic who ignored copious warnings from foreign governments and FBI agents that the attacks were imminent (what, when, where), and paralyzed the air defenses with multiple wargames while the actual events took place.

"Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death." -- Adolf Hitler "In Germany, the Nazis first came for the communists, and I did not speak up, because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak up, because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak up, because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I did not speak up, because I was not a Catholic. Then they came for me...

and by that time, there was no one to speak up for anyone." -- Martin Niemoeller, Pastor, German Evangelical (Lutheran) Church (1892-1984) "The government will make use of these powers only insofar as they are essential for carrying out vitally necessary measures...The number of cases in which an internal necessity exists for having recourse to such a law is in itself a limited one." -- Adolf Hitler, promise to the Reichstag (Parliament) on the occasion of the imposition of "temporary" dictatorship following the Reichstag Fire Hermann Goering, Hitler's deputy: "Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." "Until we go through it ourselves, until our people cower in the shelters of New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere while the buildings collapse overhead and burst into flames, and dead bodies hurtle about and, when it is over for the day or the night, emerge in the rubble to find some of their dear ones mangled, their homes gone, their hospitals, churches, schools demolished - only after that gruesome experience will we realize what we are inflicting on the people of Indochina ..." -- William Shirer, 1973 -- author, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich : A History of Nazi Germany" Time to Connect the Dots parallels between the Reichstag Fire and 9/11 Both events were used by an unpopular minority leader to squelch opposition. Both events had convenient patsies - and a public intimidated from asking questions about the details.

Both events could not have happened (physically) as the unpopular leader claimed (Mr. Van Der Lubbe couldn't have possibly set all of the fires as quickly as the Nazis claimed, just like there's no way that flight school dropouts flew the plane into the nearly empty part of the Pentagon in a high speed spiral). Both events were immediately followed by a "temporary" suspension of civil liberties to deal with the terrorist threat. San Francisco peace rally - February 16, 2003 the "Project for a New American Century" - the "Mein Kampf" of the Fourth Reich (In September 2000, the PNAC published a report that stated a "new Pearl Harbor" would enable its plans for global domination.) Parallels Hitler's book Mein Kampf (My Struggle) , written in 1925 while he was in jail for an attempted coup (putsch), explicitly described his goals for world domination, stealing Russia for German expansion, and mass murdering Jews with poison gas. It was dismissed as the ravings of a lunatic by most observers.

The Project for a New American Century, a think tank comprising most of the "neo-conservatives" in key leadership positions in the Bush / Cheney regime, published a report in September, 2000 titled "Rebuilding America's Defenses." This report, which was endorsed by Cheney, Jeb Bush, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and the rest of the gang, predicted that their goals of world domination would be difficult unless there was a "new Pearl Harbor." The PNAC report also noted "the need for a substantial American force presence in the [Persian] Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein" ..., and genetically engineered biological weapons "may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool." This PNAC report is the "Mein Kampf" for World War IV. Hitler rose to power under the veneer of legality, ensuring that each tiny step toward dictatorship seemed legitimate. The Bush regime appeared (to many) to have been legitimately elected, if you didn't look too closely at the deliberate disenfranchisements of Democrats in Florida. This sneaky cloaking to steps toward dictatorship in the guise of legality is probably the strongest parallel between the tactics of the Nazis and the tactics of the Bush regime.

Reichstag Fire (February 27, 1933) and the refusal of most Germans to question the official story September 11, 2001 and the refusal of most Americans to question the official story Enabling Act passed after Reichstag Fire to temporarily suspend civil liberties to deal with the terrorist threat posed by Communists. The temporary emergency lasted until Germany was in ruins in 1945. USA Patriot Act passed shortly after 9/11 to temporarily suspend civil liberties to deal with the terrorist threat posted by Islamic fundamentalists. The proposed sequel to Patriot Act is closer to the Enabling Act in content, but public outcry kept it from being enacted as a complete act. If there is another 9/11 type incident, Patriot II is more likely to be passed. Among other provisions, it would remove citizenship from convicted terrorists, similar to the removal of German citizenship of German Jews, a key "legal" step toward their expulsion to concentration and death camps.

Dachau (earliest internment camp, which incarcerated political opponents, it was not a "death camp," at least in early days) Guantanamo indefinite detention camp, built by Haliburton, President Cheney's company Propaganda ministry The Constitution: Checking a Would-Be King By Ray McGovern t r u t h o u t | Perspective Friday 18 August 2006 On February 27, 1933, four weeks after Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor, the Reichstag building, Germany's parliament was destroyed in a fire. Hitler took full advantage of this 9/11-like calamity to whip up fear of "terrorists" - in this case, Communist terrorists - and to impose legislation curtailing the rights of German citizens. The Germans, by and large, acquiesced. In Defying Hitler: A Memoir, Sebastian Haffner provides an eyewitness account of those days in Berlin: With sheepish submissiveness the German people accepted that, as a result of the fire, each one of them lost what little personal freedom and dignity was guaranteed by the constitution; as though it followed as a necessary consequence....

more than one [of my colleagues] hinted that they had doubts about the official version; but none of them saw anything out of the ordinary in the fact that, from now on, one's telephone would be tapped, one's letters opened, and one's desk might be broken into. (pp 121-122) 20 parallels between Bush’s America and Hitler’s Germany. Remarks from BLOOR CINEMA EVENT panel, Toronto, 9/11/2003 By Barrie Zwicker Barrie Zwicker in Toronto Regarding Reichstag Fire/911 Van der Lubbe was the patsy in the Reichstag fire. Seventy years later you have some "ex-CIA" types still utilizing him in this way. As well they might, considering what's at stake. According to historians I've read, Van der Lubbe was *an* arsonist at the Reichstag, but not the lone arsonist and definitely not the arsonist responsible for the conflagration. More on why he was on the scene that night, below. But for argument's sake allow for a moment that he was the *lone* arsonist.

Even if he *were,* it is misleading to make that assertion in such a way as to suggest little or no Nazi involvement in the events of February 27, 1933. Everything else indicates the Nazis were the only beneficiaries of the fire, as iconic in its day as 9/11 in ours. First take the possibility he was the lone arsonist. He was below par mentally and therefore a person easily duped. It is interesting -- especially in light of the large body of circumstantial evidence pointing to Nazi complicity -- that those who claim or suggest that Van der Lubbe was the lone arsonist seldom if ever show any interest into whether he might have been manipulated. In any event, the "lone arsonist" theory does not conform to the facts. Consider this from William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich (Touchstone Edition, 1990, p. 192-): From Goering's Reichstag President's Palace an underground passage, built to carry the central heating system, ran to the Reichstag building. Through this tunnel Karl Ernst, a former hotel bellhop who had become the Berlin S.A.

leader, led a small detachment of storm troopers on the night of February 27 to the Reichstag, where they quickly scattered gasoline and self-igniting chemicals and then made their way quickly back to the palace the way they had come. At the same time a half-witted Dutch Communist with a passion for arson, Marinus van der Lubbe, had made his way into the huge, darkened and to him unfamiliar building and set some small fires of his own. This feeble-minded pyromaniac was a godsend to the Nazis. He had been picked up by the S.A. a few days before after having been overheard in a bar boasting that he had attempted to set fire to several public buildings and that he was going to try the Reichstag next. The coincidence that the Nazis had found a demented Communist arsonist who was out to do exactly what they themselves had determined to do seems incredible but is nevertheless supported by the evidence. The idea for the fire almost certainly originated at the top with Goebbels and Goering.

Hans Gisevius, an official in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior at the time, testified at Nuremberg that 'it was Goebbels who first thought of setting the Reichstag on fre,' and Rudolph Diels, the Gestapo chief, added in an affidavit that 'Goering knew exactly how the fire was to be started' and had ordered him 'to prepare, prior to the fire, a list of people who were to be arrested immediately after it.' General Franz Halder, Chief of the German General Staff during the early part of World War II, recalled at Nurembrg how on one occasion Goering had boasted of his deed. At a luncheon on the birthday of the Fuehrer in 1942 the conversation turned to the topic of the Reichstag building and its artistic value. I heard with my own ears when Goering interrupted the conversation and shouted: "The only one who really knows about the Reichstag is I, because I set it on fire!" With that he slapped his thigh with the flat of his hand. Shirer writes (p. 193): "Van der Lubbe, it seems clear, was a dupe of the Nazis.

He was encouraged to try to set the Reichstag on fire. But the main job was to be done -- without his knowledge of course -- by the storm troopers. Indeed it was established at the subsequent trial at Leipzig that the Dutch half-wit did not possess the means to set so vast a building on fire so quickly. Two and a half minutes after he entered, the great central hall was fiercely burning. He had only his shirt for tinder. The main fires, according to the testimony of experts at the trial, had been set with considerable quantities of chemicals and gasoline." Consider that Vice-chancellor von Papen recalled that when he arrived at the blazing parliament buildings Goering was already on the scene shouting: "This is a communist crime..." Shirer writes: "...beyond reasonable doubt it was the Nazis who planned the arson and carried it out for their own political ends." Indeed, the more you study the Reichstag fire, its origins and uses, the more you see what a stunning parallel to it 9/11 is -- on the face of it, as well as in some of the intricacies.

BarrieZ in Toronto Published on Friday, September 13, 2002 by CommonDreams.org Bush's 9/11 Reichstag Fire My Briefing with Ray McGovern George Tenet, Iraq, Neo-Conservatives, Vietnam and 911 through the eyes of a 27-year CIA analyst “I saw it in Vietnam,” he says. “And usually it was the President himself or the White House that was responsible in the final analysis. Think Gulf of Tonkin.” McGovern is referring to the non-event that became the rationale for the escalation of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. “We knew that there was no incident that night," McGovern says. "McGeorge Bundy [Lyndon Johnson's National Security Advisor] knew that there was no incident that night. And yet LBJ with his towering presence, his total power — corrupting totally — leaned over and said ‘McGeorge, are you going up to the hill to sell this resolution?’ Bundy admitted on McNeil Lehrer Newshour, one painful show: ‘So, I went. I went up and I lied to Congress.’ “So, it’s happened before.

What’s different this time is that we have a situation where, over a two-year period, an incredibly clever orchestrated campaign was waged to exploit the trauma of the American people — the trauma of 911. To exploit it in such a way as to achieve the aims of the…“ McGovern stops to find the word. “I don’t call them neo-conservatives," he says, "because I’m conservative. I call them neo-fascists, because that’s what they are. And what these neo-fascists did was see 911 as a golden opportunity.” Holy Benito! Neo-fascists? I ask McGovern if he's using Mussolini’s definition of fascism. As Il Duce said, "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power." Think Halliburton U.S.A. McGovern agrees, but adds more.“I’m also talking about the measures that were taken in Nazi Germany after the fire that burned down the Reichstag, Germany’s parliament building, in 1933. It was that fire that allowed Hitler to institute his own legislation." McGovern draws a parallel between 911 and the Reichstag fire.

After claiming that the Communists committed arson, Hitler used the incident to declare a state of emergency and suspend some of the constitutionally protected personal freedoms of German citizens. These rights included freedom of speech and assembly. “Very much like post-911 legislation instituted here in this country to curtail civil liberties,” McGovern says, "to make people feel that if they speak out against what is happening, they are unpatriotic." What was the Reichstag Fire? Encyclopedia Britannica Micropedia, Vol 9 (1987) 15th Ed Reichstag fire, burning of the Reichstag (parliament) building in Berlin, on the night of Feb. 27, 1933, a key event in the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship and widely believed to have been contrived by the newly formed Nazi government itself to turn public opinion against its opponents and to assume emergency powers. Hitler had secured the chancellorship after the elections of November 1932, but his Nazi Party had not won an overall majority. He therefore obtained Cabinet consent to fix new elections for March 5, 1933.

Meanwhile, his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, is supposed to have devised the scheme whereby 10 agents led by Karl Ernst were to gain access to the Reichstag through a tunnel leading from the official residence of Hermann Goring, Reichstag president and Hitler's chief minister, who was then to conduct an official investigation, which would fix responsibility for the fire on the Communists. The supposed arsonist was a Dutchman, Marinus van der Lubbe, whom some have claimed was brought to the scene of the crime by Nazi agents. Others have contended that there was no proof of Nazi complicity in the crime, but that Hitler merely capitalized on van der Lubbe's independent act. The fire is the subject of continued debate and research. On Feb. 28, 1933, the day after the fire, Hitler's dictatorship began with the enactment of a decree "for the Protection of the People and the State," which dispensed with all constitutional protection of political, personal, and property rights.

Though the ensuing elections still did not give the Nazis an outright majority, they were able to persuade the Reichstag to pass an Enabling Act (March 23) whereby all its legislative powers were transferred to the Reich Cabinet by a vote of 444 to 94, so sanctioning the dictatorship. A feature of the ensuing arson trial, at which van der Lubbe was convicted, was the acquittal of the Bulgarian Communist Georgi Dimitrov after a strong defense. Additional Information About the Reichstag Fire Shortly before election day, the Reichstag building went up in flames-most probably at the initiative of the Nazis themselves. Hearing about the arson, Hitler reportedly first said, "Now I've got them in my hands." The Nazis exploited the torching of the Reichstag to describe the act as a manifestation of an attempted Communist putsch and, on the basis of this allegation, to legitimize an all-out war against the Communists. That very night, Goering declared a supreme state of emergency throughout his police forces. The Nazis rounded up 4,000 political activists, mostly Communists, but including several non-Communist intellectuals. The headquarters and newspaper editorial boards of the Social-Democratic party were taken over.

The heads of the Communist party in the Reichstag turned themselves over to the police voluntarily to prove that the charges were groundless. The next morning, Hitler presented President von Hindenburg with an emergency order, ready for his signature, that voided important basic civil rights, expanded substantially the list of crimes that carried the death penalty, and vastly boosted the central government's powers to pressure the individual states. The police were now empowered to imprison suspects and extend remand indefinitely at their discretion. They could keep relatives utterly uninformed about the reason for the arrest and the fate of the imprisoned person. They could prevent lawyers or other people from visiting detainees and reviewing their files. No court was entitled to intervene. The emergency order, "for the protection of the people and the State," was augmented that very day by an order "against treason and treachery." The two orders became the basis of jurisprudence and the foundation stones of the Nazi dictatorship.

Thus, the emergency order of February 28, 1933, read: "Paragraphs 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153 in the German Reich Constitution are provisionally null and void. Accordingly, the restrictions on personal freedom and the right to express opinions freely, including freedoms of the press, association, and assembly; monitoring of letters, cables, and telephone calls, searches of homes, and expropriation of property, and restrictions thereon, are hereby revoked within the limits previously stipulated in the law." The order, to be in effect until 1945, replaced constitutional rule with a perpetual state of emergency.

Book Review The Reichstag Fire, 68 years on Alexander Bahar, Wilfried Kugel: Der Reichstagbrand - Wie Geschichte gemacht wird (The Reichstag Fire - How History is Created), edition q, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-86124-523-2, 864 pages, price: 68.00 DM A guest review by Wilhelm Klein 5 July 2001 2-27-1933 Just days before the crucial election of March 5th, a fire destroys the main chamber of the Reichstag in Berlin; the Nazis immediately declare that this is the work of the Communists. Minister without Portfolio Hermann Göring shouts to the new Gestapo chief: "This is the beginning of the Communist revolution! We must not wait a minute. We will show no mercy. Every Communist official must be shot , where he is found.

Every Communist deputy must this very night be strung up." [The following day Hitler persuaded President von Hindenburg to sign an emergency decree that suspended seven crucial articles of the Constitution: freedom of the person, freedom of expression, freedom to assemble, secrecy of mail and other forms of communication, sanctity of property and of the home as a place of refuge. Trucks of brown-shirted SA (Sturm Absteilung) thugs swarmed over Berlin and the provinces, breaking into homes, and carting victims off to be beaten and tortured. Over four thousand Communist leaders and Social Democrats were arrested, including many members of the Reichstag. The opposition press was closed down, and ten-year prison sentences were given to any person providing news to foreign governments that was "not in the best interests of Germany". Opposition rallies were banned or broken up by bullies; only the Nazis and their Nationalist Party allies were able to campaign unmolested. It was widely believed, in Germany and abroad, that the fire had been set by the Nazis themselves.] The fire was ostensibly set by Marinus van der Lubbe, a dim-witted Dutch communist who liked to play with matches.

He was picked up by the SA after he had been heard boasting in a bar that he would set fire to the Reichstag. They encouraged him with his plans, but first a group of SA men (later eliminated by Hitler in the Night of the Long Knives, 6-30-34) carried quantities of gasoline and self-igniting chemicals through an underground passage from Göring's headquarters to the Reichstag which they scattered in strategic places. At van der Lubbe's trial in Leipzig it was clear that he could not have set such fierce fires and in so many places simultaneously with the meager materials he had brought. He was, nevertheless, convicted and decapitated. Shirer, Rise and Fall, pp. 192-195; Sherwin and Markmann, One Week in March, (1961) pp. 81-83. At 8 o'clock Wednesday night, the Sikh in a blue turban in the subway change booth at 42nd Street gave me a little wave and I waved back. Suddenly, he was a front-line soldier in a war. I designate the subway at Times Square as a prime target in America in the war with Iraq.

I had just been at the public library, where I discovered the speech that started World War II. I print much of it here. It is darkly familiar to what we have been hearing here, when for the first time in American history we became all the things we ever hated and invaded another country. Herewith the speech: Address by Adolph Hitler to the Reichstag, Sept. 1, 1939. For months we have suffered under the torture of a problem which the Versailles Diktat created -- a problem that has deteriorated until it becomes intolerable for us ... As always, I attempted to bring about, by the peaceful method of making proposals for revision, an alteration of this intolerable position. It is a lie when the outside world says that we only tried to carry our revisions through by pressure. Fifteen years before the National Socialist Party came to power there was the opportunity of carrying out these revisions by peaceful settlements and understanding. On my own initiative I have, not once but several times, made proposals for the revision of intolerable conditions.

All these proposals, as you know, have been rejected -- proposals for the limitation of armaments and, even if necessary, disarmament, proposals for the limitation of warmaking, proposals for the elimination of certain methods of modern warfare ... You know the endless attempts I made for peaceful clarification and understanding of the problem of Austria, and later of the problem of the Sudatenland, Bohemia and Moravia. It was all in vain. It is impossible to demand that an impossible position should be cleared up by peaceful revision, and at the same time constantly reject peaceful revision. It is also impossible to say that he who undertakes to carry out the revisions for himself transgresses a law, since the Versailles Diktat is not law to us. In the same way, I have tried to solve the problems of Danzig, the Corridor, etc., by proposing a peaceful discussion. That the problems had to be solved was clear. It is quite understandable to us that the time when the problem was to be solved had little interest for the Western Powers. But time is not a matter of indifference to us ... For four months I have calmly watched developments, although I never ceased to give warnings. In the last few days I have increased these warnings ...

I made one more final effort to accept a proposal for mediation on the part of the British government. They proposed, not that they themselves should carry out the negotiations, but rather that Poland and Germany should come into direct contact and once more pursue negotiations. I must declare that I accepted this proposal and worked out a basis for these negotiations which are known to you. For two whole days I sat in my government and waited to see whether it was convenient for the Polish government to send a plenipotentiary or not. Wednesday night they did not send us a plenipotentiary, but instead informed us through their ambassador that they were still considering whether and to what extent they were in a position to go into the British proposals. The Polish government also said they would inform Britain of their decision. Deputies, if the German government and its leader patiently endured such treatment Germany would deserve only to disappear from the political stage. But I am wrongly judged if my love of peace and my patience are mistaken for weakness or even cowardice. I, therefore, decided Wednesday night and informed the British government that in these circumstances I can no longer find any willingness on the part of the Polish government to conduct serious negotiations with us. The other European states understand in part our attitude.

I should like all to thank Italy, which throughout has supported us, but you will understand for the on of this struggle ... we will carry out this task ourselves. This night for the first time, Polish regular soldiers fired on our territory. Since 5:45 a.m. we have been returning the fire and from now on bombs will be met with bombs. Whoever fights with poison gas will be fought with poison gas. Whoever departs from the rules of humane warfare can only expect that we shall do the same ... until the safety, security of the Reich and its rights are secured. *** On that night, Hitler used this dry, unimaginative language to start a world war that was to kill 60 million, and they stopped counting. Wednesday night, George Bush, after speech after speech of this same dry, flat, banal language, started a war for his country, and we can only beg the skies to keep it from spreading into another world war. Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc. Adolf Hitler and the 1933 Reichstag Fire SHARE FPG / Getty Images Firemen surveying the ruins following the Reichstag fire in Germany, 1933. On Feb.

27, 1933, the building was destroyed — and no matter who did it, the Nazis got what they wanted It’s a semi-mystery that’s over eight decades long: who set fire to the Reichstag, the German parliament, on Feb. 27, 1933? As described in the Mar. 6, 1933, issue of TIME, the arson came amid “a campaign of unparalleled violence and bitterness” by then-Chancellor Adolf Hitler, in advance of an approaching German election, and it turned a building that was “as famous through Germany as is the dome of the Capitol in Washington among U. S.

citizens” into “a glowing hodge-podge of incandescent girders.” Marinus van der Lubbe, an unemployed Dutch bricklayer linked to the Communist party, was tried and executed for the crime the following year, but even then TIME questioned whether the Nazis who held him responsible were also the ones who had paid him to set the fire, “promising to save his neck by a Presidential reprieve and to reward him handsomely for hiding their identity and taking the whole blame in court.” In 1981 , a West Berlin court declared that the trial had been “a miscarriage of justice,” though they stopped short of saying that he had been innocent. In 2001, evidence emerged that the conspiracy theory had been right along, with historians announcing that the Nazis had been the ones responsible for the fire, though even then others disagreed — and, as recently as 2014, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum noted that “the origins of the fire are still unclear.” But, while van der Lubbe’s life still hung in the balance, reporting on the aftermath of the fire made clear that, whoever set the spark, the aftermath had already been determined by Nazi powers, in their own favor.

Here’s how TIME summed it up just a week after the original report on the fire: Before German Democracy could thus be downed this week, the Hitler Cabinet had to launch last week a juggernaut of super-suppressive measures & decrees for which they needed an excuse. What excuse could be better than the colossal act of arson which had just sent a $1,500,000 fire roaring through the Reichstag Building […] gutting completely the brown oak Reichstag Chamber and ruining its great dome of gilded copper and glass. The Reichstag fire was set by Communists, police promptly charged. Over a nationwide radio hookup the Minister of Interior for Prussia, blustering Nazi Captain Hermann Wilhelm Göring, cried: “The Reichstag fire was to have been the signal for the outbreak of civil war!

… The Communists had in readiness ‘terror squads’ of 200 each … These were to commit their dastardly acts disguised as units of our own Nazi Storm Troops and the Stahlhelm … The women and children of high Government officials were to have been kidnapped as hostages and used in the civil war as ‘living shields’!… “The Communists had organized to poison food … and burn down granaries throughout the Reich … They planned to use every kind of weapon—even hot water, knives and forks and boiling oil!… “From all these horrors we have saved the Fatherland! We want to state clearly that the measures taken are not a mere defense against Communism. Ours is a fight to the finish until Communism has been absolutely uprooted in Germany!” The “juggernaut” of new decrees included increasing the weaponry provided to Nazi troops (despite violation of the Treaty of Versailles) and the transfer of the majority of state powers from President Paul von Hindenburg to Hitler and his cabinet. Rights ensured by the German constitution were suspended, and a gag rule was placed on foreign journalists within the country, with severe punishments for violation. The German government was moved from Berlin to Potsdam.

Within the month, TIME reported that nearly all of the country’s leading Communists and Socialists were in jail. By April , Nazis were using the threat of another fire to ensure the passage of the Enabling Act, which solidified Hitler’s place as dictatorial leader for years to come. Whether Nazi involvement in the Reichstag fire was direct or indirect or, improbably, nonexistent, the result was the same. Reichstag, Berlin, Germany, 3313 insider tips, photos, reviews & tickets - Page 8 Story Line of Berlin Walking Tour Including Typical Berlin Chocolate "Take a step back in history and visit some of the original sites of World War II. After meeting your guide at a predetermined location you'll stop by the Reichstag a historical building constructed to house the Imperial Diet of the German Empire. The Reichstag fire of 1933 gave the Nazis pretext to blame the communists and seize power; in 1945 it was bombed by soviets during the Battle of Berlin.Afterward make your way toward the Brandenburg Gate; once the symbol of division during the Cold War it now epitomizes German reunification.

Along the way you'll see the beautiful Pariser Platz one of the city's main focal point.Continuing Berlin Private Half-Day Walking Tour: Discover the German Capital’s History "Discover how a small town built on a swamp became one of the most powerful cities in the world! Enjoy your own private guide now to see all of Berlin’s main sights in one 4-hour tour encompassing all areas of the German capital’s history. Your to an imperial capital and into the dark days of the 20th Century. You’ll get to know all about Berlin all at your own pace. At the breathtaking Museum Island you will not only see inspiring neo-classical architecture but learn about the Prussians’ ambitions to turn Berlin into a world city. No wonder it’s now a UNESCO World Heritage Site! From here you’ll walk the entire length of the Unter den Linden the former royal boulevard.

Along the way you’ll pass Germany’s central war memorial the Neue Wache "Private Half-Day Tour of Berlin: Capital of Culture Private 3-hour Introductory Tour of Berlin Capital of Culture Tyranny and Tolerance"This 3-­hour tour of Germany’s capital city takes a broad view of the political and ideological forces that unleashed genocide and global war in the 20th century. Exploring Berlin’s iconic landmarks while emphasizing the tumultuous Nazi and Cold War eras you will learn how in the 1700s tiny Prussia’s violent transformation into Europe’s dominant military power already set the stage for the great tragedies of recent history. Begin the tour at Potsdamer Platz the business center which replaced the wasteland formerly known as East Germany’s “Death Strip.” Following the path where the Berlin Wall once stood through to the historic Tiergarten Park you take in the dramatic new Holocaust Memorial and the Reichstag.

While the mysterious fire that damaged the Reichstag in 1933 was used by the Nazis as the pretext to suspend civil liberties and arrest political opponents the grand glass dome created for the building in 1992 by architect Norman Foster (complete with walkways that look down into the Parliament) provokes a discussion about the symbolic intentions of the cupola a metaphor for Germany’s reunification Travel for Kids Berlin Germany - City center (Mitte) & Reichstag Berlin  City Center (Mitte) Reichstag  Start out at the Reichstag building, in the heart of the city. This historic building, home to the German Parliament, is topped with a dazzling transparent dome. Inside the cupola, the mirrored cone is right out of a science fiction movie (be sure to see your multiple reflections). Kids will enjoy the climb round and round the ramps to the top, for a dramatic panorama of Berlin. Come at nighttime for a completely different experience, as the dome is illuminated from below. From the Reichstag, you can head either east or west  east in the direction of Museum Island and around the Alexanderplatz or west towards the Tiergarten and Kurfurstendamm.

Walk from the Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor) down Unter den Linden  Nothing says Berlin like the Brandenburg Gate. The impressive 18th century Brandenburg Gate is topped with Nike, the goddess of victory, driving her chariot with four horses (Quadriga). At the Brandenburg Gate, kids will want to run back and forth through the columns. Unter den Linden is a wide boulevard, once again lined with lime (linden) trees. As you walk down the center promenade, there are more "Berlin bears" sculptures and park benches (relax on the benches with an ice cream). Bebelplatz  This spacious plaza was the site of the Nazi book burning in 1933. In the middle of the plaza, hunch down on the ground to look through a clear window to a room below. The underground room has bookshelves, but no books, a stark reminder of that dark moment. The day we visited the Bebelplatz, there was a book fair, booths selling children's books and fresh made doughnuts.

Question: In which city was the Reichstag burnt down in 1933?
Answer: Berlin