I had to sit and read through a piece concerning comments of an idiot four-star Army general (head of the Joint Chiefs)....who commented that the 6th of January event...was a 'Reichstag-moment'.
So to explain the Reichstag situation....around early November 1932...another German election occurred. This was the 3rd in two years. It's safe to say that the German political landscape was falling apart.
The 'winner' of this election? The Nazi Party, but with only 33-percent of vote (remember, they do a number of parties in German politics). So Hitler went to an attempt to form a government (partnering with some other parties). He had to reach a compromise situation....agreeable to partners.
From the 6th of November until the third week of January 1933....this back-and-forth business went on. Then the coalition was settled.
Around four weeks after this coalition settlement....on a Monday night (27 Feb 1933)....a fire started up at the Reichstag (capital building)...around 9 PM.
To best sum up the fire....there was a fair amount of wood work in the structure, and it burned pretty easily. Somewhere within the structure....as the fire was downsized, police came upon this one Dutch guy. The guy would be identified as a communist party supporter.
This guy (Marinus van der Lubbe) has an interesting history. As a teen, he ended up as a apprentice bricklayer. Around 1926, at a job....he got lime in his eyes and became mostly blind. There in the Netherlands, he went on unemployment comp. He ends up as a organizer for a Lenin group. For a four-year period, he ends up as a central figure in strikes. The government has various charges up against him, but never seems able to put him into prison (begs questions).
Somehow, without a lot of explanation....he ends up down in Berlin....caught in the Reichstag. The general talk is that he wanted the fire to energize anti-Nazi feelings.
The police would end up putting this Dutch guy, along with the head of the German Communist Party and three Bulgarian Communists into a court session.
The court wrapped up the mess...convicting the Dutch guy....acquitting the four others, and executing the Dutch guy 10 January 1934. Age at the time? 25.
So here's the chief problem....historians all argue about the fire, and there's a lot of speculation over what actually happened.
Did the Dutch guy do it by himself? Was there a broader conspiracy tied to this? Could the Nazi apparatus have arranged for Dutch guy to get drawn into this and 'arranged' for him to have set the fire? These are all still on the table today, with no clear conclusion.
About the only fact that you can glean is that the Dutch guy was in the interior of the building and was likely the person who set the fire. Beyond that....it's a question-mark.
So here is the curious thing that occurred the day after the fire....a decree went out. The text?
"Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124 and 153 of the Constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice. It is therefore permissible to restrict the rights of personal freedom [habeas corpus], freedom of (opinion) expression, including the freedom of the press, the freedom to organize and assemble, the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications. Warrants for House searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed."
Before the smoke had even cleared....suspension of basic civil rights were terminated. The speed from which this was done? Kinda shocking.
From that point on....the downfall of Germany was set.
The chief question? You kinda wonder if this was scripted out to bring this blind Dutch guy into Berlin, and arrange for him to think he was doing some 'good' deed, and he was simply the fall-guy.
So when this Pentagon general is uttering 'Reichstag moment'....without thinking much about it....he is suggesting a broad conspiracy might exist. If so....who is the Dutch guy in this situation, and who arranged for him to be in the Capital building?
Just something to think about.
