The Reichstag Fire Night: Berlin, February 27, 1933

On the night of February 27, 1933, the Reichstag, Germany's parliament building, went up in flames in Berlin. A Dutch communist, Marinus van der Lubbe, was arrested inside the damaged building. The Nazi government immediately called the fire the opening move of a Communist uprising. 1

By the next day, President Paul von Hindenburg had signed the Reichstag Fire Decree. It suspended basic rights, expanded police power, and helped the Nazis arrest political opponents without ordinary judicial process. 2

The episode follows the fire, the accusation, the decree, and the chain of votes that led to the Enabling Act less than a month later. It also keeps the central uncertainty honest: historians still disagree about who set the fire, while there is no serious dispute that Hitler's government used it to destroy political opposition. 3

The building burned for one night. The legal order changed the next morning. The lasting consequence came through arrests, intimidation, and the Enabling Act, which let Hitler's cabinet make laws without parliament.