reichstag fire quizletaudit assistant manager duties and responsibilities
It was my task to expose the Party, and the mentality, which was responsible for the crime. Even the US independent Fox Movie Tones newsreel reflected the German government version. Kaas was a close associate of Cardinal Pacelli, then Vatican Secretary of State (and later Pope Pius XII). d. His anti-Semitic views. The law allows pardons for people convicted of crimes under the Nazis, based on the idea that the laws of Nazi Germany "went against the basic ideas of justice". The Reichstag Fire was a dramatic arson attack occurring on February 27, 1933, which burned the building that housed the Reichstag (German parliament) in Berlin. He was beheaded by guillotine (the customary form of execution in Saxony at the time) on 10 January 1934, three days before his 25th birthday. When did the Reichstag Fire happen? [18] These rights were not reinstated during Nazi reign. 1 - Repealing of Nazi Laws, National Socialist German Doctors' League, An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races, The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century, National Socialist Bulgarian Workers Party, German National Movement in Liechtenstein, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "The Reichstag fire - Nazi rise to power - National 5 History Revision", "Reichstag Fire Decree United States Holocaust Memorial Museum", "Franz von Papen, Catholic Conservatives, and the Establishment of the Third Reich, 19331934", "The 1933 election and Enabling Act - Consolidation of power - WJEC - GCSE History Revision - WJEC", "The role of the conservative elite in the Nazi rise to power The Holocaust Explained: Designed for schools", "The Reichstag Fire and the Enabling Act of March 23, 1933", "The law that 'enabled' Hitler's dictatorship", "German Social Democracy and Hitler's "National Revolution" of 1933: A Study in Democratic Leadership", "NB-ALEX Deutsches Reichsgesetzblatt Teil I 18671945", "Hitler Seizes Life and DeathRule of Nazis (April 27, 1942)", "Control Council Law No. Dimitrov in particular won international fame for his fearless and skilled defense against Nazi prosecutors. [23], From 21 September to 23 December 1933, the Leipzig Trial took place and was presided over by judges from the German Supreme Court, the Reichsgericht. Kristallnacht | Definition, Date, Facts, & Significance | Britannica [1] This made the fire pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany. It also gave the central government the authority to overrule state and local laws and overthrow state and local governments. [10], During the election campaign, the Nazis alleged that Germany was on the verge of a communist revolution and that the only way to stop the communists was to put the Nazis securely in power. And saying this he slapped his thigh". Van der Lubbe, for his part, maintained that he acted alone to protest against the condition of the German working class. The Act effectively eliminated the Reichstag as active player in German politics. He also argued that the act's passage in the Reichsrat was tainted by the overthrow of the state governments under the Reichstag Fire Decree; as Evans put it, the states were no longer "properly constituted or represented", making the Enabling Act's passage in the Reichsrat "irregular".[27]. 348 pp. Calling an election - and taking advantage of the Reichstag fire - he got the Reichstag to pass the Enabling Act. No matter who may have started the Reichstag Fire, its importance in aiding Hitler and the Nazi Partys rise to absolute power in Germany is clear. Nuremberg Laws | Holocaust Encyclopedia Gring was found guilty at the mock trial, which served as a workshop that tested all possible scenarios, and all speeches of the defendants had been prepared. He reported Hitler arriving at the Reichstag, appearing uncertain how it began, and concerned that a communist coup was about to be launched. Armed with the Enabling Act, Hitler could begin German rearmament and achieve his aggressive foreign policy aims which ultimately resulted in the Second World War. Politicians and pundits on different ends of the political spectrum have invoked it to describe a crisis that a politician or government has supposedly manufactured to sow fear in the public in order to grab more power or achieve a desired political end. In the passing of Enabling-Act-based laws however, the President had no role to play at all. Kaas never received the letter. [11], Shortly after 9p.m. on 27 February 1933, the Reichstag building was reported as on fire, and firefighters were dispatched. At this stage, the majority of deputies already supported the bill, and any deputies who might have been reluctant to vote in favour were intimidated by the SA troops surrounding the meeting. It ended in the acquittal of the four Communists and the conviction of Van der Lubbe, who was executed. The Nazi press described the Reichstag fire as the work of the Communists and a signal for their planned uprising. [2] By the time police and firefighters arrived, the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house) was engulfed in flames. Using the decree, the Nazis declared a state of emergency and began a violent crackdown against their political enemies. Hitler's Reichstag speech promoting the bill was delivered at the Kroll Opera House, following the Reichstag fire. The rights of the President remain unaffected. Find topics of interest and explore encyclopedia content related to those topics, Find articles, photos, maps, films, and more listed alphabetically, Recommended resources and topics if you have limited time to teach about the Holocaust, Explore the ID Cards to learn more about personal experiences during the Holocaust. In 1981, a West German court posthumously overturned Van der Lubbe's 1933 conviction and found him not guilty by reason of insanity. But the controversy lives on: In his 2013 book Burning the Reichstag, historian Benjamin Hett claimed that scientific evidence proved the Dutchman could not have acted alone, given the extent of the fire and the time he spent inside the Reichstag building. Despite the virulent rhetoric directed against the Communists, the Nazis did not formally ban the KPD right away. Dimitrov: I would like to ask the Minister of the Interior what steps he took to make sure that Van der Lubbe's route to Hennigsdorf, his stay and his meetings with other people there were investigated by the police to assist them in tracking down Van der Lubbe's accomplices? In March 1973, the Swiss historian Walter Hofer organized a conference intended to rebut the claims made by Tobias. Despite their efforts, most of the building was gutted. Justified on the false premise that the Communists were planning an uprising to overthrow the state, the Reichstag Fire Decree permitted the regime to arrest and incarcerate political opponents without specific charge, dissolve political organizations, and to suppress publications. [47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55], The uncovering of Lennings's affidavit led to the speculation that Tobias had ignored it to protect his single perpetrator theory on the arson, and to protect the post-war career of former Nazis. Tobias undertook his study when tasked to defend West German police officials, who had investigated the initial fire as SS members. 4. Commonly known as the Reichstag Fire Decree, the resulting act For the Protection of the People and State abolished a number of constitutional protections and paved the way for Nazi dictatorship. Only SPD chairman Otto Wels spoke against the Act, declaring that the proposed bill could not "destroy ideas which are eternal and indestructible." Mommsen also had a theory supporting Hofer, which was suppressed for political reasons, an act that he admitted was a serious breach of ethics. Reichstag fire, burning of the Reichstag (parliament) building in Berlin on the night of February 27, 1933, a key event in the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship and widely believed to have been contrived by the newly formed Nazi government itself to turn public opinion against its opponents and to assume emergency powers. Reichstag Fire Flashcards | Quizlet 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW This page was last edited on 19 June 2023, at 10:58. For the post-World War I trials, see, Toggle Dispute about Van der Lubbe's role subsection, Political violence in Germany (19181933), German Supreme Court trial, September to December 1933, 1955 testimony of SA member Hans-Martin Lennings, "Countertrial" by the German Communist Party in exile, 1933, biography by Martin Schouten "Rinus van der Lubbe 19091934" (1989). For this purpose, a working committee was set up, co-chaired by Hitler and Centre Party chairman Kaas. Gring also declared that any deputy who was "absent without excuse" was to be considered as present, in order to overcome obstructions. The Nazis expected the parties representing the middle class, the Junkers and business interests to vote for the measure, as they had grown weary of the instability of the Weimar Republic and would not dare to resist. During the course of his defence, Dimitrov claimed that the organizers of the fire were senior members of the Nazi Party and frequently verbally clashed with Gring at the trial. The Bulgarians were acquitted and were expelled to the Soviet Union. When Goebbels received an urgent phone call informing him of the fire, he regarded it as a "tall tale" at first and hung up. In reality the Act met little resistance, with only the centre-left Social Democratic Party voting against passage. A quorum of two-thirds of the entire Reichstag was required to be present in order to call up the bill. Gring: I shall tell you what the German people already know. It was expected that the court would find the communists guilty on all counts. The Nazis alleged that Van der Lubbe was part of a communist conspiracy to burn down the Reichstag and seize power, while the communists alleged that Van der Lubbe was part of the Nazi conspiracy to blame the crime on them. Last updated 31st January 2022. The Nazi leadership and its coalition partners used the fire to claim that Communists were planning a violent uprising. A 1932 amendment to the constitution made the president of the High Court of Justice, not the chancellor, first in the line of succession to the presidencyand even then on an interim basis pending new elections. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Delmer viewed Van der Lubbe as being solely responsible, but that the Nazis sought to make it appear to be a "communist gang" that set the fire. The supposed arsonist was a Dutchman, Marinus van der Lubbe, whom some have claimed was brought to the scene of the crime by Nazi agents. [18] This sent the German population into a panic and isolated the communists further among the civilians; additionally, thousands of communists were imprisoned in the days following the fire (including leaders of the Communist Party of Germany) on the charge that the Party was preparing to stage a putsch. Within months, for example, the Nazi regime destroyed Germanys previously vigorous free press. [37], In private, according to Hitler's Table Talk, Hitler said of the chairman of the Communist Party, Ernst Torgler: "I'm convinced he was responsible for the burning of the Reichstag, but I can't prove it".[38]. Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window), Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window), Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window), Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window), Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window), https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/reichstag-fire. However just 18 . [36], The British reporter Sefton Delmer, criticised for being a Nazi sympathiser at the time, witnessed that night's events. It only met sporadically until the end of World War II, held no debates and enacted only a few laws. Germans voted in an atmosphere of extreme voter intimidation perpetrated by the Nazi Sturmabteilung (SA) militia. [16] Gempp asserted that there had been a delay in notifying the fire brigade and that he had been forbidden from making full use of the resources at his disposal. It has also been suggested that some members of the SPD were intimidated by the presence of the Nazi Sturmabteilung (SA) throughout the proceedings.[19]. Translated by Arnold J. Pomerans from the German, "Der Reichstagsbrand." By the late 1920s, Adolf Hitler and his Nationalist Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party were gaining strength due to growing popular dissatisfaction with the ruling Weimar Republic. Shortly after nine o'clock on the evening of February 27, 1933, the Reichstag building in Berlin started to burn. Article 2 stated that the president's powers were to remain "undisturbed" (or "unaffected", depending on the translation), which has long been interpreted to mean that it forbade Hitler from tampering with the presidency. In 1942, the Reichstag passed a law giving Hitler power of life and death over every citizen, effectively extending the provisions of the Enabling Act for the duration of the war.[30]. Control Council Law No. In it the burning Reichstag can be seen in the background. It was then essentially destroyed in the Battle of Berlin in 1945. The Leipzig Trial was widely publicized and was broadcast on the radio. In my eyes you are nothing, but a scoundrel, a crook who belongs on the gallows!". Not only did they fear a violent uprising, but they hoped the KPD's presence on the ballot would siphon off votes from the SPD. Laws enacted by the government of the Reich may deviate from the constitution as long as they do not affect the institutions of the Reichstag and the Reichsrat. Courtesy of The Wiener Holocaust Library Collections. The trial began at 8:45 on the morning of 21 September, with Van der Lubbe testifying. [15] Unless extended by the Reichstag, the act would expire after four years. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. In January 1933, Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, was appointed as chancellor, the head of the German government. 2., pp. Specifically targeting the Communists, Minister of the Interior Hermann Gring ordered a raid on that partys headquarters in Berlin on February 24. Articles 68 to 77 stipulated the procedures for enacting legislation in the Reichstag. The swift and brutal response to the Reichstag Fire bolstered Hitlers image as Germanys strong-willed savior from the dreaded Bolshevism.. The question of who really set the Reichstag fire has remained a matter of enduring debate to the present day. [16] The Enabling Act would be renewed twice and would be rendered null when Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies in 1945. Although they received five million more votes than in the previous election, the Nazis failed to gain an absolute majority in parliament, and depended on the 8% of seats won by their coalition partner, the German National People's Party, to reach 52% in total. [31] However, in the days following the incident, major newspapers in the US and London had immediately been sceptical of the good fortune of the Nazis in finding a communist scapegoat. [25] The People's Court later became associated with the number of death sentences it handed down, including those following the 1944 attempt to assassinate Hitler, which were presided over by then Judge-President Roland Freisler. The Enabling Act was formally declared to be repealed by the Allied Control Council in Control Council Law No. 'Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich'),[1] was a law that gave the German Cabinet most importantly, the Chancellor the powers to make and enforce laws without the involvement of the Reichstag or Weimar President Paul von Hindenburg, leading to the rise of Nazi Germany. Consolidation of power. With elections set for early March, the Nazis set about suppressing their political opposition. Watch the investigation into who caused the Reichstag fire, Learn how Adolf Hitler established his dictatorship in Germany, This article was most recently revised and updated by, 9 Things You Might Not Know About Adolf Hitler, https://www.britannica.com/event/Reichstag-fire, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Holocaust Encyclopedia - The Reichstag Fire, History Learning Site - The Reichstag Fire of 1933. He used it as a pretext to claim that Communists were plotting against the German government, and induced President Paul von Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree suspending civil liberties, and pursue a "ruthless confrontation" with the Communists. The decree also removed all restraints on police investigations, allowing the Nazis to arrest and jail their political opponents indiscriminately. [29], At his trial, Van der Lubbe was found guilty and sentenced to death. Explore a timeline of events that occurred before, during, and after the Holocaust. No. Later, nearly all of those with knowledge of the Reichstag fire were executed. After the Fire Decree was issued, the Nazi-controlled police made mass arrests of communists, including all of the communist Reichstag delegates. Mommsen commented on Hofer's claims by stating: "Professor Hofer's rather helpless statement that the accomplices of Van der Lubbe 'could only have been Nazis' is tacit admission that the committee did not actually obtain any positive evidence in regard to the alleged accomplices' identity". After being appointed Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933, Hitler asked President von Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag. Thus, for all intents and purposes, the KPD was banned as of 6 March, the day after the election.[27]. Hitler removed any remaining political obstacles so his coalition of conservatives, nationalists, and Nazis could begin building the Nazi dictatorship. By the end of the year, all non-Nazi political parties, labor unions and other organizations had ceased to exist. Meanwhile, some diplomats, foreign journalists and liberals within Germany suggested that the Nazis had started the fire themselves as a pretext for taking absolute power. Ernst Torgler, head of the Communist Party, had surrendered to police on 28 February. Reichstag fire Flashcards | Quizlet They were met at the site by Hermann Gring, Interior Minister of Prussia, who told Hitler, "This is communist outrage! These special powers would remain in effect for four years, after which time they were eligible to be renewed. After he became Chancellor in January 1933, Hitler transformed his democratic position into dictatorial power. The banning of the Communist party gave the Nazis a clear majority in parliament 7. He claimed he and the other witnesses were detained and forced to sign a paper that denied any knowledge of the incident. Non-Nazi members of the Reichstag, including Vice-Chancellor von Papen, are shown objecting. Hitler called the fire a "sign from God" and claimed it was a signal meant to mark the beginning of a communist revolt. Moreover, some deputies of the Social Democratic Party (the only party that would vote against the Enabling Act) were prevented from taking their seats in the Reichstag, due to arrests and intimidation by the Nazi SA. Using this justification, Hitler persuaded Hindenburg to enact the Reichstag Fire Decree. The full text, in German[22] and English, follows: Articles 1 and 4 gave the government the right to draw up the budget, approve treaties, and enact any laws whatsoever without input from the Reichstag. Marinus van der Lubbe was found guilty and executed 10. Updates? Within three months of the passage of the Enabling Act, all parties except the Nazi Party were banned or pressured into dissolving themselves, followed on 14 July by a law that made the Nazi Party the only legally permitted party in the country. [7] Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor and head of the coalition government on 30 January 1933. Hitler allied with other nationalist and conservative factions[7] and they steamrolled over the Social Democrats in the 5 March 1933 German federal election. In their mouse-holes, out of which they now want to come, of course they hear nothing of the cheering of the masses. Germany's parliament (the Reichstag), then made up entirely of Nazi representatives, passed the laws. Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch "council communist", was the apparent culprit; however, Hitler attributed the fire to Communist agitators. We strive for accuracy and fairness. [6] Hitler submitted a proposal to the Reichstag that if passed would immediately grant all legislative powers to the cabinet and by extension Hitler. The combined effect of the Enabling Act and the Reichstag Fire Decree transformed Hitler's government into a legal dictatorship and laid the groundwork for his totalitarian regime. [56] It also led to more sober speculation about whether unknown or forgotten documents might still be hidden in German archives, and which might be valuable and revealing historical sources, especially on the Nazi regime. Firefighters struggle to extinguish the fire. I should like to know where the report that such a card had been found came from. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Is Herr Prime Minister aware of that? See answers Advertisement bosslegend He was imprisoned for fighting a war with the whole world!!
