THE REICHSTAG FIRE

Who set the fire to the Reichstag Building?

Was it Blind Chance for Hitler to consolidate his power 

or was it a NAZI plot?

You are a group of journalists who want to investigate the cause of the Reichstag Fire. You became more interested in the case after the remains of Van der Lubbe’s were exhumed to find out if he was really buried as claimed and if he was drugged by the Nazis before the fire. This is your chance to help clear his name/ prove his guilt. 

You have a short window period to break this story before anyone else does. You can choose to do a short broadcast sharing what you have unearthed. Or you could write a piece for a History Tabloid - either way, you'd be making history!

HERE ARE THE DOCUMENTS YOU HAVE ACCESS TO...

DOC 1:  A statement made by van der Lubbe to the police in March 1933. 

I decided to go to Germany to see for myself. Since the workers would do nothing, I had to do something by myself. I considered arson a suitable method. I did not wish to harm private people, but something that belonged to the state. I acted alone, no one helped me, nor did I meet a single person in the Reichstag.

DOC 2:  An account of the trial. 

Without warning, van der Lubbe who sat silent as though drugged or dazed for weeks on end, suddenly leaped to his feet, clear-eyed and bubbling with protests which he hurled at the judge.

“This trial began in Leipzig,” he shouted, “then moved to Berlin and now we are back in Leipzig but nothing ever happens. I don’t agree to that! I burned down the Reichstag and I want to have my sentence – twenty years in prison or death! I have been questioned for over 8 months. I want something to happen! This trial had now been going on for 2 months. How long is it going to take to get a verdict?”

“This trial has lasted so long, “ cut in the Chief Prosecutor, “because you will Not reveal your accomplices.”

DOC 1: Confession written by Karl Ernst, a senior member of the SA, June 1934. He ordered that the document should ONLY be published if he met a violent death. He died in the Night of the Long Knives.

I was told that a young Dutchman had turned up in Berlin of whom we could make use. This Dutch communist van der Lubbe, would climb into the Reichstag and blunder about the conspicuously. Meanwhile, I and my men would set fire to the building…. We prepared a number of fires by smearing chairs and tables and by soaking carpets and curtains in paraffin. At exactly 9.05 we finished and left. I am writing this confession because the SA has been betrayed by the evil plans of Goering and Goebbels. I shall destroy it the moment these traitors have been removed.

DOC 2: Extract from the confession of Karl Ernst, a senior member of the SA. This confession was published in Paris by German Communists in 1934 after Ernst had been killed in the Night of the Long Knives. 

I and two colleagues set fire to the Reichstag. We hope that it would enable the Fuhrer to deliver a shattering blow against the Communism, the worst enemy of the German people.

We entered the Reichstag firs at 8.45 pm/ We prepared a number of fires by smearing chairs and tables with a phosphorus miture and by soaking curtain and carpets in paraffin. We had earlier been told about a young Dutch Communist called van der Lubbe who could be p[persuaded to climb into the Reichstag and blunder about conspicuously after we had set fire to the building. But he was to be left ot believe that he was working by himself.

I cannot bear the thought that the SA was betrayed. I am writing his confession as my only insurance against the evil plans of Goring and Goebbels. I shall destroy it the moment these traitors have been dealt with.

DOC 3: A British Historian writing about Ernst’s confession in a History journal in 1960.

Ernst’s confession conveniently only turned up when Ernst was dead – killed by Hitler in the great purge of 30 June 1934. But there was one thing Karl Ernst got wrong. He agreed that the Brown Shirts entered the Reichstag at 8.40 am This had to be the time, if they were to do their work before van der Lubbe was said to have pushed through the Reichstag by the Nazis.

Unfortunately, Ernst did not know that on 27 February At 8.45 pm, a postman cam  through the s-de door to collect mail. He entered as usual; walked through the deserted building; and left at 8.55 pm. He saw nothing out of the ordinarily – no shadowy figures, no smell of petrol or other inflammable liquid.

DOC 2: Extract from a biography, written by a German historian in 1944. The historian lived through Hitler’s  rule and was an opponent of Nazism.

Before the ashes of her Reichstag building were cold, the radio was alive with voices blaring forth the details about the murderous, fire-setting plans of the communists. The plans had been stooped just in time. SA men rushed about in trucks, drunk with victory and roaring threats at people. In the cellars of the SA barracks, woolen blankets stifled the cris of the Communist victims.

DOC 3: A government official who resigned after the Night of the Long Knives due to concerns about the illegal activities of the police. He later became involved in the July Plot against Hitler in 1944 and gave evidence against the leaders at the Nuremberg War trials.

It was Goebbels who first came up with the idea of setting fire to the Reichstag. Goebbels discussed this with the leader of the Berlin SA brigade, Karl Earnst, and made detailed suggestions on how to go about carrying out the arson. A until of ten reliable SA men was put together, and now Goering was informed of all the details of the plan, so that he coincidentally was not out holding an election speech on the  night of the fire but was still at his desk in the Ministry for the Interior, even at such a late hour. The intention right from the start was to put blame for the crime on the Communists.

DOC 4: A top Nazi General who was giving evidence during the War Crimes trial in 1946. 

On the occasion of a lunch on Hitler’s birthday in 1943, the conversation turned to the Reichstag building. I had with my own ears how Goering [the Number 2 man in the Nazi Party][ broke into the conversation and shouted, “The only one who really knows about the Reichstag is me, for I set fire to it.”

DOC 5: A 1955 affidavit found in the archives of a Hanover court. By Hans-Martin Lennings, a former member of the Nazis' paramilitary SA unit.

We [the SA] had to bring Marinus van der Lubbe to the Reichstag from an informary to the Reichstag on the night of the fire. When I drove him there with other members of my SA group, we noticed a strange smell of burning and there were clouds of smoke billowing through the rooms. The fire had already started by the time we arrived. 

Later when Van Der Lubbe was accused, we were convinced that he could not possibly have been the arsonist, because according to our observation, the Reichstag had already been burning when we dropped him off there.

We were detained and forced to sign a paper denying any knowledge of the incident. Later, nearly all of those with knowledge of the Reichstag fire were executed; I had been warned and escaped to the former Czechoslovakia.

I'm now asking for this account to be certified, in the event the Reichstag fire case ever goes back to trial.

DOC 6: From a historian

Van der Lubbe was later blamed for the blaze, convicted of arson and executed after admitting he committed the act alone. He said he had committed the arson to rally communists against fascism. Four other defendants in the trial were acquitted, a decision that angered Hitler.