The Reichstag Fire 'Trigger'

 So, this is a little history 'chat'.

The Reichstag....was the German version of the capital building, and they started up on this project in the summer of 1884.  It's a key element to state that the decision for the new structure came after what you'd consider total unification of the Prussian 'state' (most set this as 1871).  

Now, I need to add this dynamic to the story.  When you look at the grand nature of this (it was a very impressive building....656,000 sq ft/61k sq meters).  It took ten years to finish (1894 it was done).  If you attempted this today, with the crappy planning style that exists (BER Airport is an example)....it'd probably require over 25 years to complete the project.

It sat there as a major part of German government operations....throughout WW I, and throughout the Weimar Republic period....then 27 February 1933 comes up.

The Nazis had been in power for roughly a year.  It was not what you'd call a solid or anchored period of power.  

On the evening of 27 February, a fire started up.  By the morning of the 28th.....it was fairly damaged.  

What came to quickly occur....a Dutch guy (Marinus van der Lubbe) came to be accused.

The story?  What the Nazis started to paint up was that this guy (who was a Communist) as the fire-starter, and after a complete investigation....they settled upon the idea that he alone (no other help) created the fire.

The court case ended, and this van der Lubbe character was executed for his 'crime' (Feb 1934....roughly a year after the fire).

So historians are mostly stuck on this issue.  No one is sure about van der Lubbe having started the fire.  

Members of the Communist Party of Germany at the time?  Well...they often hyped up that van der Lubbe was more or less a 'half-wit' or mentally disturbed.  There's not fantastic proof to this suggestion.  

In the 1960s, a book came out in Germany and the discussion turned to the idea that van der Lubbe was a pyromaniac (he 'enjoyed' fires).  Shortly after this book came out....then another discussion started up that it was a Nazi invention, and van der Lubbe was just a pawn in this whole game.

Around twenty years ago, another book came out (using Moscow data/files) and the entire fire was blamed upon the Nazis.  It was a creation to solidify their political platform.  The problem with this book is that it took a lot of Stassi (Nazi Secret Police) information, and was more or less what they believed.  

What happened in 1934, after the fire episode?  Well...the Constitution got changed....both the President and Chancellor positions were set into one single job (of course, going to Hitler).  Public opinion was heavily in favor of the Nazis at that point.    

The 5 March 1933 election, the 12 November 1933 election, the 29 March 1936 election, the 10 April 1938 election, and the 4 December 1938 election....all went heavily toward Hitler and the Nazis.  

You could have sat around any pub in the summer of 1933, and a fairly decent chat of the Bundestag fire would have come up....with the Communists bluntly targeted as 'bad boys'.

Even today (2021)....the argument of who set the fire is still debated.  But they all agree....this one single fire really set into motion the public support of the Nazi Party.

So it's just odd of looking at the 6 January 2021 episode in DC, and just kinda asks....how much of this reflects upon the Reichstag Fire 'trigger'?  It just looks a lot like a scripted event.