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Reichstag fire: Quick Facts

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Facts

Date February 27, 1933
Location Berlin • Germany
Context Enabling Act • Nazi Party • Third Reich

Did You Know?

  • Some claim that the Nazis paid van der Lubbe to take the blame for the fire in court and that they essentially promised him a pardon. These people claim that the Stormtroopers set the fire and then covered up their involvement.
  • Some historians believe that Marinus van der Lubbe could not have acted alone because of the size of the Reichstag building and the fire. Some claim that he had assistance from the Nazis, while others say that van der Lubbe was simply a pawn of the Nazis.

Photos and Videos

Reichstag fire
Portrait of Adolf Hitler in a collared shirt and tie, facing forward with a serious expression, circa 1933.
German officers in uniform stand amid rubble and charred beams inside the heavily fire-damaged Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, February 1933.
Close-up of the damaged dome of the Reichstag building in Berlin after the 1933 fire, showing broken windows and a statue of a horse and rider in the foreground.
Composite photograph with four portrait panels showing Marinus van der Lubbe, Georgi Dimitroff, Blagoi Popoff, and Wassil Taneff, accused in the 1933 Reichstag fire in Berlin.
Portrait of Georgi M. Dimitrov, Bulgarian communist leader, wearing a suit and tie and looking slightly to the side.
Judges and officials sit at a long dais in a Leipzig courtroom during the Reichstag fire trial, with large diagrams of the Reichstag building displayed behind them.
Ernst Torgler, second from left, sits upright beside Marinus van der Lubbe, who bows his head, both flanked by German guards during the Reichstag fire trial in 1933.
The mystery behind the Reichstag fire
Rise of Hitler and Nazi terror tactics
See All Videos and Images →

Related Topics and References

Topics

Key People

Portrait of Adolf Hitler in a collared shirt and tie, facing forward with a serious expression, circa 1933.
Adolf Hitler
dictator of Germany
Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
German political leader and convicted war criminal
Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
German propagandist
Georgi Mikhailovich Dimitrov
Georgi Mikhailovich Dimitrov
Bulgarian communist leader