There are a lot of theories out there about what established the Nazis as the prevailing political party in Germany in the early 20th century and many of them were coincidental such as the Great Depression occurring right around the same time that resulted in the population becoming disenfranchised with their elected leaders. However, the rise of potential Communist takeover of the government was something that was a major concern for Nazis, who just a few years before the Depression enjoyed a mere 3% level of support.
The Nazi party (which was also called The National Socialist German Workers’ Party at the time) wasn't in full command of the government and the Communist party was basically in a dead heat for control at the time.
But something like a fire in a major political building, and some rather crazy accusations afterwards, put an end to the 3-way deadlock in governance and gave the Nazis complete power over the country's legislators and eventually, the rise of Adolf Hitler as a dictator who was already serving as Chancellor.
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This fire was what many consider to be the false flag operation that resulted in many things, including Hitler's rapid rise to power and it all happened today in 1933.
There were things that lead up to this fire that eventually gave Hitler complete power over the government of Germany and one of them was a raid on the Communist Party headquarters that resulted in the discovery of contested or planted materials that the Nazis claimed were seditious and contained information stating that they intended to attack and destroy government buildings. Isn't it a little convenient that shortly after this raid something of that exact nature happened.
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Witnesses at the scene when the fire began claim to have heard the sound of broken glass around 9pm just before the blaze started. The fire, which became huge very quickly ended up being blamed on a single person, an unemployed Dutch man named Marinus van der Lubbe who was conveniently just standing outside the building with what was described as "firelighters" on his person. Apparently, he made no attempt to flee the scene even though it took firefighters several hours to put out the blaze. Does this sound a bit sus yet?
There has been much debate over the years about van der Lubbe's involvement but most people come to the conclusion that given the very large size of the fire and the fact that it was a rather conspicuous building with security, that there is very little chance that a single individual could have possibly started a fire of that magnitude especially considering the very limited tools that he had on his person.
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Whether or not he had help from the Nazis or even if he had anything to do with the blaze at all is something that has never been resolved. He confessed to the crime citing that he had operated alone and was sentenced to death for the crime.
Less than a month after the investigation had been completed regarding the blaze, the government passed the "Enabling Act" which granted complete power to then Chancellor Adolf Hitler and his ministers. This still didn't ensure Hitler complete power though because then President Hindenburg still retained the ability to relieve Hitler and his ministers of their positions. For reasons the world still doesn't know, Hindenburg did not do this and a year later when the President died, Hitler wrote a new law that combined the powers of President and Chancellor effectively making him and his cohorts the sole rulers of Germany that could not be voted out.
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one of the many pictures of Hindenburg and Hitler together
We all know what would end up happening shortly thereafter of course. The rise of Hitler to power and subsequently the most famous war the world has ever known (and hopefully ever will know) might not have happened if it had not been for the Reichstag Fire and to this day no one has come forward with the truth about what really happened that night. It is presumed that all people with real knowledge of what happened died in WW2 or if they didn't, they were very good at keeping secrets.
The German government exonerated Marinus van der Lubbe in 2008, 75 years after he was put to death for a crime that it appears as though he couldn't have possibly done unassisted.
I suppose the lesson here is to be very careful about what you decide to trust from a potentially manufactured government crisis - because at least in my mind, this isn't the only one of these that we have seen in our lives.
It all began today 90 years ago.
Super exciting facts. It's all too convenient to have 1 single person standing there the whole time during the fire. This also reminds me there's one time a young politician "suicided" in my country. The government defending party stated the deceased strangled himself until he's unconscious, and then proceed to throw himself out of the locked window...
yeah, there are a ton of those. I like the ones where people commit suicide by shooting themselves in the back of the head.... twice.
Very interesting. I noticed that Peaky Blinders did a good job of touching on some of the rise of the Nazis in the later seasons. Of course it was backdropped in England and dramatized, but it was still interesting.
I never made it that far into the show. I do remember enjoying it and don't really know why I stopped watching it. I guess that is a reason for me to fire it back up!
The accents were a bit hard to follow at first, but I eventually got used to them. Waiting now for the finale movie to be released.
Such heavy and interesting history to look back upon. Seeing the political silliness happening right now it is hard to stop wondering if we are repeating some of it.
Nazi is such a polarizing word nowadays and probs my still used tooo liberally.
Nazi is overused to the point where it no longer really has any meaning anymore. I'm sure there are plenty of false-flag operations going on all the time these days though.
Your post is very I formative. I have learned something new today. Thank you. ☺️
Manipulation was happening back then and is still happening today.
I believe that this is very true.
That's sort of history is wild. You never really know what is the linchpin to cause widespread chaos, and which Lynch pins have already been pulled causing the next uprising of a fascist regime. Who knows. Quite fascinating though and thanks for sharing this jaunt down the path of History. :)
well i was just happy to stumble upon it myself. I had heard of it of course but never really knew the exact details.