Category: Political Arson

• The Reichstag Fire Inside Job

  The Reichstag Fire Inside Job theory held that the Nazi regime, or Nazi elements acting with its knowledge, set the Reichstag fire on February 27, 1933 and then blamed Communists in order to justify emergency rule, mass arrests, and the destruction of political opposition. This theory began almost immediately, in part because the Nazis exploited the fire with such speed and ferocity. Historians have long debated the exact mechanics of the arson, and the single-culprit explanation centered on Marinus van der Lubbe has never fully silenced arguments for Nazi complicity. In the strongest version, van der Lubbe was either assisted, manipulated, or used as the visible culprit in a preplanned authoritarian seizure.