Shortly after the Nazi seizure of power on January 30, 1933, when things were still a bit dicey for the nascent Nazi hold on the German government, especially where Franz von Papen, a conservative, was nominated to exert some control over the boisterous Herr Adolf Hitler in the new cabinet after the aging Field Marshal Paul Von Hindenburg selected Adolf Hitler as German Chancellor, the Reichstag caught fire on February 27, 1933. This bit of high camp came just six days before the latest round of parliamentary elections were slated to take place, throwing the Nazi leadership into an uproar.
