The Reichstag Fire

• After becoming Chancellor Hitler called for new elections to try to get a majority.
• On 27 February, a week before the elections were due to take place, the Reichstag building was destroyed by a fire.
• The Nazis blamed Marinus Van der Lubbe, a Dutch Communist who was quickly put on trial and found guilty and executed.
• Hitler and Goering, his new Chief of Police, claimed this was the beginning of a wider Communist plot and President Hindenburg was persuaded to declare a state of emergency on 28 February, allowing him to rule by decree.
• Hitler used the temporary emergency powers to issue the Decree for the Protection of the People and the State, which allowed him to imprison political opponents, particularly Communists and ban Communist newspapers
• The election on 5 March resulted in the Nazis increasing their share of the vote to 43%. The 81 Communists elected were banned from attending Parliament so, with Nationalist support, Hitler now had majority support in the Reichstag