On this day in history – 1934

 

10^th January – The man found guilty of setting the Reichstag Fire on 27^th February 1933, Marinus van der Lubbe, was executed. His show trial in September 1933 with four Communists, arrested in a nationwide sweep of Communists after the fire, was an unconvincing attempt by the Nazis to lay the blame on the Communists. The four co-defendants were found not guilty, but were then re-arrested by the Gestapo, whose leader Herman Goring was allegedly convinced of their guilt.

The fire allowed the Nazis to issue the Emergency Decree for the Protection of People & State (a large step forward in their takeover of the German state) on 28^th February 1933.

The fire had probably been set by van der Lubbe an unemployed Communist bricklayer, but it is unknown whether he had assistance in setting the fire & accessing the building. The day the trial started the head of the Berlin SA Karl Ernst boasted that it was he who started the Reichstag fire.