PREFACE: The term ‘conspiracy theory (CT) is often used to attack the credibility of an explanation of a key event. If, for example, a conservative says the 2020 Presidential election was decided by widespread, fraudulent, voter manipulation, a liberal will call the conservative a "conspiracy theorist". But a ‘conspiracy theorist' can be a critical thinker who applies knowledge, wisdom and proven instinct in the search for truth beyond and beneath conventional wisdom.
The subtitle of a relatively recent book tells the history of understanding a key event in Nazi Germany: "Burning the Reichstag: An Investigation into the Third Reich's Enduring Mystery," by Benjamin Carter Hett, Oxford Press, 2014.
After eighty-eight years since it happened, the question of who burned the Reichstag, and why, remains unanswered, and a soft debate in print continues among the best and most oft read historians of the Nazi era. What follows relies on a recent and detailed examination of the flames that fueled the Third Reich. Benjamin Hett's conclusions will be cited at the close.
How the Nazis benefited from the fire
On 26 February 1933, the Reichstag was a grand historic building that had housed the Imperial Diet of the German Empire since 1894. Its status was not unlike that of the United States Capital Building.
By the evening of February 27, it was significantly damaged by fire. Not to the ground, but enough to reduce it to of no immediate use.
How the Nazis benefited from the fire30 January 1933: President von Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler as Chancellor to signal the beginning of the Third Reich.
3 February: Chancellor Hitler announces "living space" (Lebensraum) as a key Nazi foreign policy.
"On February 24, Goering's police raided the Karl Liebknecht Haus, the Communist Headquarters in Berlin. It had been abandoned some weeks before by the Communist leaders, a number of whom had already gone underground or quietly slipped off to Russia. But piles of propaganda pamphlets had been left in the cellar and these were enough to enable Goering to announce in an official communique that the seized ‘documents' proved that the Communist were about to launch the revolution. The reaction of the public and even of some of the conservatives in the government was one of skepticism. It was obvious that something more sensational must be found to stampeded the public before the electiontook place on March 5." (The Rise and fall of the Third Reich, William Shirer, 1960, p.191, bolding not in original.)
27 February: Several top senior officials of the Nazi Party are in Berlin attending two separate dinners: Vice-Chancellor von Papen and President von Hindenburg at one; Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Hitler at the other. Neither very far from the Reichstag. When news of the fire spreads, all four arrive at the event to find that Goering, who lives in the nearby Reichstag's President Palace, is already there, declaring that the Communists are to blame. Incidentally, there was an underground tunnel that linked Goering's residence to the Reichstag building.
The feeble-minded pyromaniac was a godsend to the Nazis
William Shirer, in his 1960 book, offered a description of what happened that night: "Through this tunnel Karl Ernst, a former hotel bellhop who had become the Berlin S.A. leader, led a small detachment of storm troopers on the night of February 27 to the Reichstag, where they scattered gasoline and self-igniting chemicals and then made their way quickly back to the palace the way they had come. At the same time, a half-witted Dutch Communist with a passion for arson, Marinus van der Lubbe, had made his way into the huge, darkened, and to him, unfamiliar building and set some small fires of his own. The feeble-minded pyromaniac was a godsend to the Nazis. He had been picked up by the S.A. a few days before after having been overheard in a bar boasting that he had attempted to set fire to several public buildings and that he was going to try the Reichstag next." (Shirer, p.192)
As the building burned, Hitler, Goering and Goebbels declared the Communists guilty of arson.
Shirer wrote that, "The idea for the fire almost certainly originated with Goebbels and Goering." (p.92)
Marinus van der Lubbe confessed to starting the fire and was executed, while three accused Communist officials were acquitted.
28 February: Hitler signs two emergency decrees: ‘Decree of the Reich President for the protection of the People and State'; and ‘Decree of the Reich President against Treason against the German People and Actions of High Treason'. Together, they gave Hitler the authority to deal with his political opponents however he wished.
3 March: In the Reichstag elections, the Nazis get 43.9% support and take control of the Reichstag. They partner with the German National People's Party (DNVP).
20 March: A "concentration camp" at Dachau for political prisoners is announced by Himmler.
23 March: Passage of the Enabling Act gave Hitler the authority to enact laws without consulting the Reichstag for four years—which eventually turns into twelve that ends at the close of World War II in Europe.
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Nazis blaming the Communists for burning the Reichstag Fire was a ruse
26 April: Goering forms the Nazi Secret Police—the Gestapo.
2 May: The Nazis ban trade unions.
23 June: The DNVP, who gave the Nazis the additional votes necessary to take control of the government, is dissolved in a process that ends all political parties except the Nazis on 14 July.
Then:
12 November: The Nazi Party runs unopposed in the Reichstag election and receives 92.1% of the vote, taking total control of Germany. And, also, obviate the need for further real elections.
Historians who focus on the pre-1933 to 1945 Nazi timeframe typically devote a few pages to the Reichstag fire. Benjamin Carter Hett's analysis runs 413 pages. Therein he writes:
"The main conclusions of these (fire experts) then, were both clear and unanimous…‘the course of events could not have been as van der Lubbe claims.'(namely, that he acted alone) Every theoretical consideration and simple practical experience spoke against the idea that ‘with the time available, the fire in the plenary chamber could have taken on the extent and unfolded as it was described by the witnesses, unless preceded by a particular preparation of the chamber for the setting of the fire.' Van der Lubbe had not had time for such preparation. Therefore, ‘it must be concluded that several persons were required for the preparation of the chamber.' No one then or since, has suggested that van der Lubbe brought with him any gasoline or kerosene." (p.115)
"There is, therefore, a consensus among the scientific experts who, from 1933 to the present, have examined the Reichstag fire: that Marinus van der Lubbe could have set the devastating fire in the plenary chamber by himself lies somewhere between highly unlikely and impossible to imagine." (p.121, bolding added)
In short, the Nazis blaming the Communists for burning the Reichstag Fire was a ruse. And van der Lubbe was a willing patsy.
Next: Democrat's stage a bold event for political gain.
Lee Cary——Bio and Archives
Since November 2007, Lee Cary has written hundreds of articles for several websites including the American Thinker, and Breitbart’s Big Journalism and Big Government (as “Archy Cary”). and the Canada Free Press. Cary’s work was quoted on national television (Sean Hannity) and on nationally syndicated radio (Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin). His articles have posted on the aggregate sites Drudge Report, Whatfinger, Lucianne, Free Republic, and Real Clear Politics. He holds a Doctorate in Theology from Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL, is a veteran of the US Army Military Intelligence in Vietnam assigned to the [strong]Phoenix Program[/strong]. He lives in Texas.
PREFACE: The term ‘conspiracy theory (CT) is often used to attack the credibility of an explanation of a key event. If, for example, a conservative says the 2020 Presidential election was decided by widespread, fraudulent, voter manipulation, a liberal will call the conservative a "conspiracy theorist". But a ‘conspiracy theorist' can be a critical thinker who applies knowledge, wisdom and proven instinct in the search for truth beyond and beneath conventional wisdom.
The subtitle of a relatively recent book tells the history of understanding a key event in Nazi Germany: "Burning the Reichstag: An Investigation into the Third Reich's Enduring Mystery," by Benjamin Carter Hett, Oxford Press, 2014.
After eighty-eight years since it happened, the question of who burned the Reichstag, and why, remains unanswered, and a soft debate in print continues among the best and most oft read historians of the Nazi era. What follows relies on a recent and detailed examination of the flames that fueled the Third Reich. Benjamin Hett's conclusions will be cited at the close.
