The Reichstag Fire

• The causes are still disputed.
• The Nazis blamed Marinus van de Lubbe, a Dutch Communist.
• Hitler exploited the fire, using it as a pretext to crush the KPD. Goebbels, the Nazi's Propaganda Minister, claimed that Germany was under attack from the communists.
• Having created a pretext for action the Nazis took 2 important steps to destroy the communists:

  1. the Nazis instructed police to conduct late night raids of the homes of leading communists. Over 4,000 people were arrested.
  2. Goering and Hitler persuaded the cabinet and Hindenburg to authorise an emergency decree.
• The Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State, or Reichstag Fire Decree, helped to consolidate Nazi power in 2 ways:
• Clause 1


  Suspended individual rights and the freedom of the press. The German people lost the right to free speech, to free assembly and to protest. This also gave the government the power to put people in prison without charging them for a specific crime, to confiscate property, and to intercept post and phone calls.
• Clause 2


  Gave Hitler's government the right to enforce law and order in the German states. This extended the power's of Hitler's government and undermined the power of Germany's state governments, some of which were powerbases for Hitler's opponents.
• Goebbel's propaganda justified these measures in 2 main ways:

  1. he argued that the Communist plot was extremely serious and could lead for all kinds of terrorist activities; therefore these measures were necessary to protect the lives of German citizens.
  2. he argued the Communists were planning a revolution and therefore the decree was necessary to ensure the survival of the German state.

  He argued that these powers were only temporary. The suspension of individual rights lasted from February 1933 until the end of the regime in 1945.