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 27th, the Reichstag
burned. Conveniently, this was only a
week before the March 5th 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:
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