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Where there's smoke, there's fire, and where there's fire, conspiracy theories are sure to follow. At least, that's what happened in Germany on February 27, 1933, when a sizeable portion of the parliamentary building in Berlin, the Reichstag, went up in flames from an arson attack.

It was the canary in the political coal mine-a flashpoint event when Adolf Hitler played upon public and political fears to consolidate power, setting the stage for the rise of Nazi Germany. Since then, it's become a powerful political metaphor. Whenever citizens and politicians feel threatened by executive overreach, the "Reichstag Fire" is referenced as a cautionary tale.

Whether it's a congressman referencing the fire to question President George W. Bush, a comparison of President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler, or numerous pundits invoking the incident to foment fear over President Donald Trump's next potential executive order, the German arson is an irrepressible political motif. It's become a kind of political shorthand-a reference so familiar that New York Times columnist Paul Krugman only had to use the word "fire" in the headline of an inflammatory column about the Trump administration to call up images of national chaos and power grabs. But the true story of the climactic event is far more complicated than the headlines suggest.

Germany's first experiment with liberal democracy was born of the 1919 Weimar Constitution, established after the conclusion of World War I. It called for a president elected by direct ballot, who would appoint a chancellor to introduce legislation to members of the Reichstag (who were also elected by popular vote). The president retained the power to dismiss his cabinet and the chancellor, dissolve an ineffective Reichstag, and, in cases of national emergency, invoke something known as Article 48, which gave the president dictatorial powers and the right to intervene directly in the governance of Germany's 19 territorial states.

Following a stint in jail for his failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, Hitler poured his energy into attaining power through legal channels. He rose to the head of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazis), and by 1928 the group's membership exceeded 100,000. The Nazis denounced the Weimar Republic and the "November criminals," politicians had signed the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty forced Germany to accept responsibility for World War I, pay huge remunerations, transfer territory to their neighbors and limit the size of the military.

Despite its considerable growth, the Nazi party won only 2.6 percent of the vote in the 1928 election. But then the Great Depression hit, sending the U.S. and Europe into an economic tailspin and shooting the number of unemployed up to 6 million people in Germany ( around 30 percent of the population). The sudden slump caused massive social upheaval, which the Nazis exploited to gain further political traction. By 1930, the Nazis won 18.3 percent of the Reichstag vote and became the second largest party after the Social Democrats, while the Communist party also grew to ten percent of the vote.

The economic unrest of the early 1930s meant that no single political party had a majority in the Reichstag, so fragile coalitions held the nation together. Faced with political chaos, President Paul von Hindenburg dissolved the Reichstag again and again. Frequent elections followed.

The Nazis aligned with other right-leaning factions and gradually worked their way up to 33 percent of the vote -but were unable to reach a full majority. In January 1933, Hindenburg reluctantly appointed Hitler as chancellor on the advice of Franz von Papen, a disgruntled former chancellor who believed the conservative bourgeois parties should ally with the Nazis to keep the Communists out of power. March 5 was set as the date for another series of Reichstag elections in hopes that one party might finally achieve the majority.

Meanwhile, the Nazis seized even more power, infiltrating the police and empowering ordinary party members as law enforcement officers. On February 22, Hitler used his powers as chancellor to enroll 50,000 Nazi SA men (also known as stormtroopers) as auxiliary police. Two days later, Hermann Göring, Minister of the Interior and one of Hitler's closest compatriots, ordered a raid on Communist headquarters. Following the raid, the Nazis announced (falsely) that they'd found evidence of seditious material. They claimed the Communists were planning to attack public buildings.

On the night of February 27, around 9:00, pedestrians near the Reichstag heard the sound of breaking glass. Soon after, flames erupted from the building. It took fire engines hours to quell the fire, which destroyed the debating chamber and the Reichstag's gilded cupola, ultimately causing over $1 million in damage. Police arrested an unemployed Dutch construction worker named Marinus van der Lubbe on the scene. The young man was found outside the building with firelighters in his possession and was panting and sweaty.

"This is a God-given signal," Hitler told von Papen when they arrived on the scene. "If this fire, as I believe, is the work of the Communists, then we must crush out this murderous pest with an iron fist."

A few hours later, on February 28, Hindenburg invoked Article 48 and the cabinet drew up the " Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and State." The act abolished freedom of speech, assembly, privacy and the press; legalized phone tapping and interception of correspondence; and suspended the autonomy of federated states, like Bavaria. That night around 4,000 people were arrested, imprisoned and tortured by the SA. Although the Communist party had won 17 percent of the Reichstag elections in November 1932, and the German people elected 81 Communist deputies in the March 5 elections, many were detained indefinitely after the fire. Their empty seats left the Nazis largely free to do as they wished.

Later that year, a sensational criminal trial got under way. The accused included van der Lubbe, Ernst Torgler (leader of the Communist Party in the Reichstag) and three Bulgarian Communists.

As the trial in Germany proceeded, a different kind of trial captured the public discourse. Willi Münzenberg, a German Communist, allied himself with other Communists to undertake an independent investigation of the fire. The combined research resulted in the publication of The Brown Book on the Reichstag Fire and Hitler Terror. It included early accounts of Nazi brutality, as well as an argument that van der Lubbe was a pawn of the Nazis. Hitler's party members were the real criminals, the book argued, and they orchestrated the fire to consolidate political power. The book became a bestseller, translated into 24 languages and sold around Europe and the U.S.

"Behind the controversy stood the larger issue of the nature of the National Socialist seizure of power: was the dictatorship the result of a political crime or simply an opportune event?" writes historian Anson Rabinbach.

It's a question that scholars and historians have been debating since the fire erupted. Their arguments fill hundreds of pages and numerous books. Some denounce the other side's evidence as fabricated while others dig their heels in deeper.

For historian Peter Black, a consultant for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the one-man theory of van der Lubbe acting alone seemed correct until 2013, when new research came out with Benjamin Hett's book, Burning the Reichstag. Hett wrote that, given the extent of the fire and the amount of time that would have been needed inside the Reichstag to set it, there was no way that van der Lubbe acted alone. Citing witness testimonies that became available after the fall of the Soviet Union, Hett argued that the Communists weren't involved at all; rather, said Hett, the group of Nazis who investigated the fire and later discussed its causes with historians covered up Nazi involvement to evade war crimes prosecution.

Black does not entirely agree with Hett's assessment, but he says that he is now convinced the one-man theory is false. "I would say that van der Lubbe could not have started that fire alone, based on the evidence that is now available," he says. "It seems likely that the Nazis were involved. But you don't have anyone who can say, yes, I saw the Nazis."

Whether or not he had help from the Nazis, van der Lubbe confessed to the arson, was found guilty and sentenced to death. The four other defendants were acquitted due to lack of evidence, but the fire continued to be brandished as a Communist plot.

On March 23, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, the partner piece of legislation to the February 28 Decree for the Protection of People and State. The Enabling Act assigned all legislative power to Hitler and his ministers, thus securing their ability to control the political apparatus. When President Hindenburg died in August 1934, Hitler wrote a new law that combined the offices of president and chancellor. It was sanctioned by a national plebiscite.

Did the Nazis really assist in setting the fire? Did van der Lubbe act alone? It's almost impossible to know, since "most of the people who would be in the know either didn't survive WWII or weren't willing to talk about it afterwards," Black says. The German government exonerated van der Lubbe in 2008, a full 75 years after he was beheaded. And though the Reichstag fire kindled decades of mystery, one thing is clear: It played a critical role in the Nazi's rise to power. The fire proved the sway of Germany's dangerous new dictator-whose vision to remake the nation had only just begun.

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The True Story of the Reichstag Fire and the Nazi Rise to Power

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Where there's smoke, there's fire, and where there's fire, conspiracy theories are sure to follow. At least, that's what happened in Germany on February 27, 1933, when a sizeable portion of the parliamentary building in Berlin, the Reichstag, went up in flames from an arson attack.

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On 27 February 1933 the Reichstag building, which was home to the German Parliament, was burned down. The communists were blamed for the fire because a Dutch communist, called Van der Lubbe, was found in the building as it burned.

Hitler used the fire to the Nazi Party's advantage in two ways:

He expelled the communists from Parliament and imprisoned many communist leaders. This stopped them campaigning prior to the March elections.

He announced that the country was in danger from the communists during the election campaign. This encouraged many to vote for the Nazis, who were seen as anti-communist.

Hindenburg declared a state of emergency using Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. This resulted in newspapers being censored and personal letters and phone calls being checked. This is seen as the start of the end of democracy in Germany.

Both these actions helped the Nazis to win more seats in the election of 5 March 1933, increasing their share of the vote from 33 per cent to 44 per cent. This gave the Nazis and their allies, the German National People's Party (who won 8 per cent of the vote), a majority of 52 per cent in the Reichstag.

The Reichstag fire was so beneficial to the Nazis that it has been suggested they started it themselves.

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The Reichstag fire - Nazi rise to power - National 5 History Revision - BBC Bitesize

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On 27 February 1933 the Reichstag building, which was home to the German Parliament, was burned down. The communists were blamed for the fire because a Dutch communist, called Van der Lubbe, was found in the building as it burned.

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Following Hitler's appointment as chancellor the Nazis were finally in a position of power.

However, this power was limited, as the Nazis were just one party in a three party coalition government, under President Hindenburg.

This topic will explore how the Nazis managed to eliminate their opposition and consolidate ultimate power over Germany, whilst maintaining an illusion of democracy.

It will first explore this topic in chronological order, from the Reichstag Fire through to the death of President Hindenburg, and then explore it thematically in the last section.

On the 31 January 1933, Hitler, conscious of his lack of a majority in the Reichstag, immediately called for new elections to try and strengthen his position. The Nazis aimed to increase their share of the vote so that they would have a majority in the Reichstag. This would allow them to rule unopposed and unhindered by coalition governments.

Over the next two months, they launched themselves into an intense election campaign.

On 27 February 1933, as the campaign moved into its final, frantic days, the Reichstag, the German Parliament building, was set on fire and burnt down. An atmosphere of panic and terror followed the event.

This continued when a young Dutch communist, Van der Lubbe was arrested for the crime.

The Nazi Party used the atmosphere of panic to their advantage, encouraging anti-communism. Göring declared that the communists had planned a national uprising to overthrow the Weimar Republic. This hysteria helped to turn the public against the communists, one of the Nazis main opponents, and 4000 people were imprisoned.

The day after the fire, Hindenburg signed the Emergency Decree for the Protection of the German People.

On the 23 March 1933, Hitler proposed the Enabling Law to the Reichstag. This new law gave Hitler the power to rule by decree rather than passing laws through the Reichstag and the president. If passed, the law would establish the conditions needed for dictatorial rule.

The atmosphere of terror that had followed the Reichstag Fire, and Hindenburg's and von Papen's support, made the proposal seem legitimate and, to some, necessary.

The law needed two thirds of the Reichstag to vote for it to pass. The Nazi's had the support of the DNVP, and had banned the communist party, the KPD, from attending.

The SA and the SS had also been on a month long campaign of violence to scare or imprison other opponents to the party. They had placed many in the first concentration camp , Dachau , which opened just a few days before the vote on the 20 March 1933.

The Centre Party's vote was crucial. After Hitler had promised to protect the interests of the Catholic Church, the party conceded and supported the bill. Only the SPD opposed it.

The Bill passed by 444 votes for to 94 against on the 24 March 1933.

Although President Hindenburg and the Reichstag continued to exist, Hitler could now govern by decree.

The Night of Long Knives, also known as the Röhm Putsch, was the purge of the SA leadership and other political opponents from 30 June 1934 to 2 July 1934. Carried out primarily by the SS and the Gestapo, over 150 people were murdered and hundreds more were arrested.

In August 1932 there were approximately 445,000 members of the SA. By June 1934 this had grown to over 3,000,000 members. They were often given a free rein on their activities and were violent and difficult to control.

Hitler feared that the SA and Ernst Röhm, their leader, were a potential threat to his leadership. This fear was intensified by Göring and Himmler, who gave Hitler news of Röhm organising a potential coup .

In addition to this, there was a mutual dislike between the traditional conservative elite - who maintained many key positions in the government and the army during the first years of the Third Reich - and the SA. During the years of the rise of the Nazi Party, the SA had been instrumental in helping the party to gain support.

However, following Hitler being elected chancellor, the SA, and particularly Röhm, were keen to continue the 'revolution' and replace the traditional conservative elite with Nazis. Hitler and the rest of the Nazi leadership disagreed with their approach. They understood the need to appear moderate and take over slowly by democratic means where possible, maintaining the stability and illusion of a democracy. The tension between the SA and the Nazi leadership grew.

On 30 June 1934 these tensions came to a head. The leaders of the SA were ordered to attend a meeting at a hotel in Bad Wiesse, Bavaria. Hitler arrived and personally placed Röhm and other high ranking SA leaders under arrest.

Over the next two days, most of the SA leadership were placed under arrest and murdered without trial. Röhm, who was initially pardoned , was then given the choice of suicide or murder. Refusing to take his own life, he was shot on 1 July 1934 by two SS guards.

Whilst the purge focused on the SA, the Nazis also used the event to eliminate other political opponents, such as the former chancellor Kurt von Schleicher.

The Night of the Long Knives (in addition to Hindenburg's death a few months later) helped Hitler and the Nazi Party to consolidate absolute power in Germany by removing their political opposition.

From 20 August onwards, the Reichswehr , who had previously been a separate organisation, now swore a personal allegiance to Hitler. The SA were dramatically reduced in size, dropping by 40% to 1.8 million by 1935.

Goebbels engineered the media coverage following the attack to present it as a preventative measure, in response to the SA's 'plan to overthrow the government'. As the SA were known for being violent and unruly, many saw this as a legitimate move by the government to ensure public order.

On 13 July 1934 the Reichstag retrospectively approved a bill legalising the purge as emergency defence measures.

Gleichschaltung was the process of the Nazi Party taking control over all aspects of Germany. It is otherwise known as coordination or Nazification. The process primarily took place between 1933-1934.

The Nazi's started with the Civil Service , issuing the Act for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service on the 7 April 1933. This act legalised removing anyone of non-Ayran descent from the civil service.

In the judicial system specifically, this act removed any judges that were deemed non-compliant with Nazi laws or principles. This act was reinforced by the German Civil Service code of 26 January 1937, which retired any judges or judicial official who would not intervene in cases and rule in favour of the Nazis. The People's Court, a court created by the Nazis in April 1934 with judges chosen specifically for their Nazi beliefs, replaced the Supreme Court. With these measures in place, the Nazification of the judicial system was complete.

Gleichschaltung was applied across every possible aspect of government policy.

To take control of cultural policy, the Nazis appointed Joseph Goebbels as Minister for Public Engagement and Propaganda on the 13 March 1933. Goebbels became responsible for controlling the national media, film, theatre, arts, and other cultural aspects. Goebbels soon radicalised each of these areas, ensuring that they advocated Nazi ideas.

Whilst Gleichschaltung aimed to reach every aspect of rule in Germany, this was not always possible. Local governments proved more difficult to infiltrate, and even at the end of 1945 only 60% of local mayors were Nazi Party members.

Despite this, on the whole, Gleichschaltung was largely successful. By the end of 1934, the Nazis had managed to infiltrate and take control of every major aspect of German government.

The Nazis consolidation of power can be grouped into three main themes: pseudo-legality, terror and intimidation and pseudo-moderation.
Pseudo-legal
Germany feared revolution. As such, the Nazis' consolidation of power relied on maintaining the illusion of a stable democracy. This essentially meant that the Nazis used the atmosphere of panic following the Reichstag Fire to put forward the Enabling Law. Once the Enabling Law was in place, the Nazis could bypass the Reichstag and rule by decree - seemingly creating laws that stabilised Germany and got rid of its 'internal enemies'. In reality, the laws that the Nazi's put forward secured their future as the sole ruling party in Germany.

The support of respected individuals such as von Papen and Hindenburg's son, Oskar von Hindenburg, gave the Nazis further legitimacy for these actions.

The Nazis immediately used the Enabling Law to remove civil rights. This meant, as well as removing other personal freedoms, that the Nazis could now imprison their political opposition for an indefinite period for any, or no, reason. The Enabling Law allowed them to do this under the guise of legality. As such the Nazi's justified this measure as implementing necessary security measures, rather than revealing their true motive - to remove opposition.

The Nazis' also took several more steps to reduce their political opposition 'legally'. On the 2 May 1933 trade unions were banned. Just two months later, on 14 July 1933 the Nazis used the Enabling Act to ban all political parties except the Nazi Party.

The Nazis also took steps to ensure they couldn't be openly opposed in the press. On the 4 October 1933, it was declared that all editors must be Aryan. Censorship was heightened, and any person publishing actively anti-Nazi material was threatened or imprisoned. By 1935, over 1,600 newspapers had been closed.

These acts removed people's ability to oppose the Nazi Party, in any form. However, it did so under the guise of legality, and 'protecting' the German people and their democracy.
Terror and intimidation
Whilst the pseudo-legal measures were one factor that helped the Nazi's to consolidate power, another was terror and intimidation.

The Nazi's used the SA and the newly expanded SS to harass and imprison any potential opponents of the Nazi Party. Following the Enabling Law, much of this harassment and imprisonment was legal.

In 1933, up to 200,000 people were seized and imprisoned by the SA and the SS. Prisons soon became stretched for space. The Nazis improvised. They used any space they could get their hands on to create temporary 'camps'. The first concentration camp, Dachau, opened in a broken-down munitions factory on the 20 March 1933, imprisoning primarily political prisoners.

The camps were brutal and had extremely unsanitary conditions. Many of the prisoners were tortured and abused.

Many of those that were harassed by the SA and the SS or imprisoned in camps were terrified to speak out about their ordeal - fearing that they would be further abused or re-imprisoned.

Terror and intimidation became one of the main ways that the Nazis sought to control or suppress their opposition, and German's in general.
Pseudo moderation
The Nazis used the guise of moderation to conceal their rapid consolidation of power.

One key example of an event posed as moderate was the Night of Long Knives.

The Night of Long Knives was the purge of the SA leadership and other political opponents from the 30 June 1934 to the 2 July 1934. Over 150 people were murdered and hundreds more were arrested.

Following the purge, the Nazi's sculpted the media coverage to portray the event as a preventative measure against a revolutionary, violent, and uncontrollable force, rather than a series of political murders.

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Following Hitler's appointment as chancellor the Nazis were finally in a position of power. However, this power was limited, as the Nazis were just one party in a three party coalition government, under President Hindenburg. This topic will explore how the Nazis managed to eliminate their opposition and consolidate ultimate power over Germany, whilst maintaining an illusion of democracy.

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This article was most recently revised and updated by

Reichstag fire, burning of the Reichstag (parliament) building in Berlin on the night of February 27, 1933, a key event in the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship and widely believed to have been contrived by the newly formed Nazi government itself to turn public opinion against its opponents and to assume emergency powers.

Adolf Hitler had secured the chancellorship after the elections of November 1932, but his Nazi Party had not won an overall majority. He therefore obtained Cabinet consent to hold new elections on March 5, 1933. Meanwhile, his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, was supposed to have devised the scheme whereby 10 agents led by Karl Ernst were to gain access to the Reichstag through a tunnel leading from the official residence of Hermann Göring, Reichstag president and Hitler's chief minister, who was then to conduct an official investigation, which would fix responsibility for the fire on the communists. The supposed arsonist was a Dutchman, Marinus van der Lubbe, whom some have claimed was brought to the scene of the crime by Nazi agents. Others have contended that there was no proof of Nazi complicity in the crime, but that Hitler merely capitalized on van der Lubbe's independent act. The fire is the subject of continued debate and research.

On February 28, 1933, the day after the fire, Hitler's dictatorship began with the enactment of a decree "for the Protection of the People and the State," which dispensed with all constitutional protection of political, personal, and property rights. Though the ensuing elections still did not give the Nazis an outright majority, they were able to persuade the Reichstag to pass an Enabling Act (March 23) whereby all its legislative powers were transferred to the Reich Cabinet by a vote of 444 to 94, so sanctioning the dictatorship.

In the ensuing arson trial, van der Lubbe was convicted of treason; he was executed by guillotine in January 1934. Also tried in connection with the fire were Ernst Torgler, the chairman of the German Communist Party in the Reichstag, and three Bulgarian communists-Simon Popov, Vassili Tanev, and Georgi Dimitrov. Dimitrov in particular won international fame for his fearless and skilled defense against Nazi prosecutors. All four of the accused communists were acquitted because of the lack of evidence.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Michael Ray.

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Reichstag fire | Summary, Significance, Images, Video, Enabling Act, & Facts

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Reichstag fire, burning of the Reichstag (parliament) building in Berlin on the night of February 27, 1933, a key event in the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship and widely believed to have been contrived by the newly formed Nazi government to turn public opinion against its opponents and to assume new powers.

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On February 27, 1933, the German parliament ( Reichstag) building burned down due to arson. The Nazi leadership and its German Nationalist coalition partners exploited the fire to persuade President Paul von Hindenburg that Communists were planning a violent uprising to derail Germany's "national renewal." They claimed that emergency legislation was needed to prevent this. Commonly known as the Reichstag Fire Decree, the resulting act "For the Protection of the People and State" abolished a number of constitutional protections and paved the way for Nazi dictatorship.

Using emergency constitutional powers, Adolf Hitler 's cabinet had issued a Decree for the Protection of the German People on February 4, 1933. This decree placed constraints on the press and authorized the police to ban political meetings and marches, effectively hindering electoral campaigning. A temporary measure, it was followed by a more dramatic and permanent suspension of civil rights following the February 27 burning of the parliament building.

Though the origins of the fire are still unclear, in a propaganda maneuver, the coalition government (Nazis and the German Nationalist People's Party) blamed the Communists. They exploited the Reichstag fire to secure President von Hindenburg's approval for an emergency decree, the decree "For the Protection of the People and State" of February 28, one day after the burning of the Reichstag. Popularly known as the Reichstag Fire Decree, the regulations suspended the right to assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and other constitutional protections, including all restraints on police investigations.

Justified on the false premise that the Communists were planning an uprising to overthrow the state, the Reichstag Fire Decree permitted the regime to arrest and incarcerate political opponents without specific charge, dissolve political organizations, and to suppress publications. It also gave the central government the authority to overrule state and local laws and overthrow state and local governments.

The Nazi press described the Reichstag fire as the work of the Communists and a signal for their planned uprising. Even the US independent Fox Movie Tones newsreel reflected the German government version. Although the Communists had not, in fact, developed any plans for an uprising, the impact of propaganda and terror on existing fears of a Communist takeover convinced many Germans that Hitler's decisive action had saved the nation from "Bolshevism."

Within months, for example, the Nazi regime destroyed Germany's previously vigorous free press. By 1941, the Nazi Party's Eher publishing house had become the largest ever in German history, and its main daily newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter (The National Observer) had reached a circulation of over 1,000,000.

Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

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On February 27, 1933, the German parliament ( Reichstag) building burned down due to arson. The Nazi leadership and its German Nationalist coalition partners exploited the fire to persuade President Paul von Hindenburg that Communists were planning a violent uprising to derail Germany's "national renewal." They claimed that emergency legislation was needed to prevent this.