The Reichstag is the first parliament in the German Empire. Before the modern building was erected, it was located in several buildings on the Leipziger Strasse in Berlin.
In 1933, on February 27, the Reichstag was set on fire. Historical evidence indicates that it was a Nazi provocation. However, then the Communists were declared the culprits. Nazi propaganda inspired the masses that the burning of the Reichstag was a signal for the start of a revolution against the Communists, substantiating this expediency and the need for widespread arrests.
The day after the incident, a decree was proclaimed, which suspended the constitutional articles providing personal civil liberty, the right to association, freedom of the press, inviolability of private property and home, privacy of correspondence. Along with this, the death penalty was introduced for treason to the state.
At about ten in the evening on February 27, the police received an anonymous call. Unknown reported that the Reichstag building is on fire.
When firefighters arrived, the building was enveloped in fire. Some time later Goebbels and Hitler arrived. Goering, who also arrived soon, told Hitler that the communists had set fire to the Reichstag.
Going around the building, the police stumbled in a south wing on a man topless. He made an impression not quite normal mentally. During the search and arrest, however, he offered no resistance. According to his passport, his name was Marinus van der Lubbe. He was a subject of the Netherlands, was unemployed.
Ernst Togler, one of the most popular Communist speakers and leader of the communist bloc in the Reichstag, was later arrested. He came to the police voluntarily in order to express his views on what had happened.
On March 9, three more people who were in Germany under false documents were arrested. They became: George Dmitrov (head of the Western European Comintern underground) and Bulgarian citizens Vasil Tanev and Blagoy Popov.
All those arrested, except Van der Lubbe, denied any involvement in the incident. However, they all appeared as defendants at the Leipzig trial. Van der Lubbe was sentenced to death and beheaded on the guillotine.
Despite the fact that the Nazis conducted a fairly powerful propaganda campaign, neither in Germany, nor even around the world, no one doubted that the burning of the Reichstag was not a matter of the Communists, but of the Nazis.
Later, many facts and details of this case were revealed. Rall, a felon arrested in another case, the investigation stated that, as a security officer of one of the leaders of the SA Karl Ernst, participated in the event on February 27. He reported the smallest details of the arson. According to his testimonies, Ernst summoned a group of people, whose members were instructed to set fire to the building. At about ten in the evening they entered the Reichstag building through the basement and scattered incendiary mixture through it. After which people returned to the Palace of the Chairman. Along with this, an operation was launched to “launch” the Van der Lubbe facility, which, presumably, was intoxicated.
Goering, after Rall’s testimony became known, ordered Diels (deputy police) to decisively obstruct the investigation and eliminate all probable consequences of the case. After some time, Rally’s corpse was discovered. And subsequently, other participants in the arson were eliminated.
Today, the Reichstag is the political center in Germany. Some time ago, it was a symbol of the unification of the Western and Eastern parts of the country. For many Russian citizens, this is a symbol of the victory of the Soviet army over the Nazis, as evidenced by the surviving inscriptions on the Reichstag made by Soviet soldiers.