This Day in History (1933) – The Reichstag Fire

The usual caveat applies - I don't endorse Hitler.

The day after Adolf Hitler took power, Josef Goebbles wrote the following in his diary:

“During discussions with the Führer we drew up the plans of battle against the red terror. For the time being, we decided against any direct countermeasures. The Bolshevik rebellion must first of all flare up; only then shall we hit back.”

Five days after Hitler took power [4 Feb 1933], his cabinet issued a decree [ratified by President Hindenburg] named Decree for the Protection of the German People.  This decree placed constraints on the press and authorized the police to ban political meetings and marches, effectively hindering electoral campaigning.  Hermann Göring, who had become acting Interior Minister and thus head of the police in Prussia, recruited 50,000 SA and SS members into the police. The ensuing campaign of violence and terror was waged against Communists and other Nazi opponents [the Social Democrats were a close second to the Communists in taking Nazi abuse].  The SA’s job was to fight in the streets, break heads/legs/any other body parts, to break up meetings of opposing political parties, and to cause general mayhem.   On February 24th, the Gestapo raided Communist headquarters. Hermann Göring claimed that he had found "barrels of incriminating material concerning plans for a world revolution".  However, the alleged subversive documents were never published. 

Then, on February 27^th, the Reichstag burned.  Conveniently, this was only a week before the March 5^th election.  A young Communist named Marinus van der Lubbe [who was a Communist until 1929] was apprehended at the scene.   Van der Lubbe made a full confession, but there were [and still are] many skeptics.  The UK’s Daily Express, Seftan Delmer opined the next day that the Nazis set the fire.  Fifteen months after the fire, an SA Gruppenführer named Karl Ernst confessed he and a group of fellow SA members set the blaze [William L. Shirer wrote as much in his The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich].  Regardless of who set the blaze, Hitler had his pretext for dealing with the Communists in his own way.  He initially wanted to shoot all the Communists.  The following day, the government issued its Reichstag Fire Decree.  Thousands of Communists were rounded up and thrown into jail.  Those who couldn’t be found went into hiding.

Marinus van der Lubbe

Karl Ernst

Here’s the Reichstag Fire Decree in its entirety.  For what the Nazis wanted to do, they didn’t need a lot of words – they just came right out and said it.  Gone were the days one could do anything he wanted, associate with anyone he wanted.  The German state could tap your phones and read your mail.  The state could search your house.  The state could seize any or all of your property.  They could do all of this without the niceties of getting a warrant.  The police state was born here.  The Weimar Republic's days were numbered.

Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and State of 28. February 1933

On the basis of Article 48, Section 2, of the German Constitution, the following is decreed as a defensive measure against Communist acts of violence that endanger the state:

§ 1

Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153 of the Constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice. Thus, restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press, on the right of assembly and the right of association, and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications, and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property are permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.

§ 2

If any state fails to take the necessary measures to restore public safety and order, the Reich government may temporarily take over the powers of the highest state authority.

§ 3

State and local authorities must obey the orders decreed by the Reich government on the basis of § 2.

§ 4

Whoever provokes, appeals for, or incites the disobedience of the orders given out by the supreme state authorities or the authorities subject to them for the execution of this decree, or the orders given by the Reich government according to § 2, can be punished – insofar as the deed is not covered by other decrees with more severe punishments – with imprisonment of not less than one month, or with a fine from 150 to 15,000 Reichsmarks.

Whoever endangers human life by violating § 1 is to be punished by sentence to a penitentiary, under mitigating circumstances with imprisonment of not less than six months and, when the violation causes the death of a person, with death, under mitigating circumstances with a penitentiary sentence of not less than two years. In addition, the sentence may include the confiscation of property.

Whoever provokes or incites an act contrary to the public welfare is to be punished with a penitentiary sentence, under mitigating circumstances, with imprisonment of not less than three months.

§ 5

The crimes which under the Criminal Code are punishable with life in a penitentiary are to be punished with death: i.e., in Sections 81 (high treason), 229 (poisoning), 306 (arson), 311 (explosion), 312 (flooding), 315, paragraph 2 (damage to railways), 324 (general public endangerment through poison).

Insofar as a more severe punishment has not been previously provided for, the following are punishable with death or with life imprisonment or with imprisonment not to exceed 15 years:

1. Anyone who undertakes to kill the Reich President or a member or a commissioner of the Reich government or of a state government, or provokes such a killing, or agrees to commit it, or accepts such an offer, or conspires with another for such a murder;

2. Anyone who under Section 115, paragraph 2, of the Criminal Code (serious rioting) or of Section 125, paragraph 2, of the Criminal Code (serious disturbance of the peace) commits these acts with arms or cooperates consciously and intentionally with an armed person;

3. Anyone who commits a kidnapping under Section 239 of the Criminal Code with the intention of making use of the kidnapped person as a hostage in the political struggle.

§ 6

This decree enters into force on the day of its promulgation.

Berlin, 28. February 1933

The Reich President von Hindenburg

The Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler

The Reich Minister of the Interior Frick

The Reich Minister of Justice Dr. Gürtner

The following are the articles of the Weimar Constitution that were affected by the Reichstag Fire Decree:

Article 114 The rights of the individual are inviolable. Limitation or deprivation of individual liberty is admissible only if based on laws. Persons deprived of their liberty have to be notified, at the next day on the latest, by which authority and based on which reasons the deprivation of their liberty has been ordered; immediately they have to be given the opportunity to protest against the deprivation of liberty.

Article 115 Every German's home is an asylum and inviolable. Exceptions are admissible only if based on a law.

Article 117 Privacy of correspondence, of mail, telegraphs and telephone are inviolable. Exceptions are admissible only if based on a Reich law. Article 118 Every German is entitled, within the bounds set by general law, to express his opinion freely in word, writing, print, image or otherwise. No job contract may obstruct him in the exercise of this right; nobody may put him at a disadvantage if he makes use of this right. There is no censorship; in case of the cinema, other regulations may be established by law. Also in order to combat trashy and obscene literature, as well as for the protection of the youth in public exhibitions and performances legal measures are permissible.

Article 123 All Germans have the right to assemble peacefully and unarmed; such assemblies do not require any prior notification or special permit. A Reich law can require prior notification for assemblies taking place in the open, and it can, in case of imminent danger for public security, stipulate that such assemblies in the open may be prohibited. Article 124 All Germans are entitled, for means which do not conflict with penal laws, to form clubs or societies. This right may not be limited by preventive measures. These regulations also apply for religious societies. Every club is free to acquire legal capacity. No club may be denied of it because of it pursuing political, socio-political or religious goals.

Article 153 Property is guaranteed by the constitution. Laws determine its content and limitation. Expropriation may only be decreed based on valid laws and for the purpose of public welfare. It has to be executed with appropriate compensation, unless specified otherwise by Reich law. Regarding the amount of the compensation, the course of law at general courts has to be kept open in case of a controversy, unless Reich laws specify otherwise. Expropriations by the Reich at the expense of the states, communities or charitable organizations may only be executed if accompanied by appropriate compensation. Property obliges. Its use shall simultaneously be service for the common best. Coming March 23rd:  The Enabling Act