There are some important moments in history where different events collide with each other, just as tectonic plates collide and have exactly the same results. Earthquakes! Inside or outside quotes. Undoubtedly one of these stories is his arson Reichstag in February 1933.
There are only two facts about that case. The first is that this historic building… burned down. The second is that the perpetrator of the arson was a young, half-blind Dutchman.
From that point on, nothing is a given. Did the perpetrator act alone? Did the perpetrator act on the basis of an organized plan? The perpetrator acted alone but some people had brainwashed him or literally τον pushed him to do it and then exploit it politically?
Most likely, Marinus van der Lube acted out of selfless motives against the harsh Nazi regime that then took his first steps, but this act turned him into a "useful idiot" for him. Adolf Hitler and Goebbels who used it to suppress the only obstacle they had to absolute power: the Communist Party of Germany.
The leaping rise of the Nazi beast
As early as 1928 and until 1932 the National Socialist Party of Germany (NSDAP) led by Adolf Hitler marked a sharp rise in its electoral percentages but mainly its influence in society. The road to absolute power is almost open. And we say almost open, because the resistance of the German Communist Party (KPD) to the plans of Hitler and the Nazi party was strong.
To fully understand all of the above, it is enough to mention the following: In the elections of July 31, 1932, the Nazi party recorded the highest performance it ever had with 13,7 million votes. Such a launch is easy to see considering that in the 1928 election he had received 810.000 votes, while doubling his strength compared to the 1930 election. The issue, however, for Hitler and his plans was that in parallel with In their own rise, there was also the Communist Party, which rose from 4,6 million votes in the 30 elections to 5,3 in the July 32 elections.
Things got even more complicated for the Nazi party with that year's second election. In November 1932 the NSDAP lost two million votes, at the same time as the KPD gained an additional 1,5 million votes.
This is where the Nazis decide that they must end with the Communist Party in order to lead to absolute power without any obstacles.
Marinus van der Lube and the arson of the Reichstag
On the afternoon of February 27, 1993, a small fire broke out inside the huge building of the German parliament. Passers-by, before the fire broke out, had heard a glass break and had seen a man enter inside. They immediately notified the police and the fire brigade. In a short time, very strong forces of the fire brigade and those of the police have arrived at the spot. A young man is found inside the building and arrested. At the same time, firefighters seem to be quick to control the fire, however, suddenly the glass dome collapses and thus creates the "chimney effect" which gives momentum and intensity to the fire and makes it uncontrollable in just a few moments.
Eventually, the fire almost completely destroyed five of the large rooms of the imposing building which was severely damaged externally. At the same time, the man who was arrested for the arson is taken to the nearest police station and there he immediately confesses his guilt.
It is Marinus van der Lube who described in detail to the police how he set fire. All his action, however, was so sketchy that he was forced to use even the shirt he was wearing, which he dipped in oil as a kindling to set fire to the sofas and curtains of the five rooms.
After the torture, the perpetrator says that he acted alone and wanted to motivate the Germans to revolt against the Nazi regime. This was also the opportunity he was looking for Nazi regime which "charges" the arson in an organized plan of the communists since van der Lube himself was a declared communist and anti-fascist.
Marinous was a very poor man who had two accidents which almost deprived him of his sight. He could only recognize a man if he was less than a meter away. At the same time, for many he was a man of diminished perception, although such a thing did not appear in the trial that followed.
That same night, another 1500 members of the Communist Party were violently arrested from their homes and taken for questioning. Hitler seeks and succeeds in passing the infamous Ermächtigungsgesetz (legislative mandate) by which he now has supremacy. It outlaws the Communist Party and is virtually totalitarian.
The two different trials and their background
Following Van der Lupe's confession, a judicial thriller begins with a rich political background. The perpetrator repeats in his trial that he acted alone. This, however, does not satisfy Hitler's regime which, with its good cooperation Joseph Goebbels sets up a mock trial in which four members of the Communist Party are dragged along, as the people who set up the whole conspiracy. Among them was the later secretary of the Communist International, Giorgi Dimitrov, who directly accused Hermann Goering "Van der Lube had help. I did not give it to him. So he should have received it from you. "
The perpetrator himself proves with his apology (which lasted six hours) that he is not a person of reduced perception and insists that he acted alone. For the Nazis, however, he acted under communist orders, while for the Communists he was an agent (intentionally or not) of the Nazis.
The communists, in fact, they held their own trial for the case in London. The decision was issued a day before the trial in Germany. They "proved" that the Nazis were responsible for the arson, referring to a "secret" passage that carried telephone and electric cables, as well as heating pipes to Goering's house! They claimed that members of the Nazi party had used this passage to penetrate the building and then lit the fire themselves and at the last moment pushed Van der Lube into the building through the window, so that the police could arrest him and shoulder him. the category.
Eventually, despite the fact that the conviction for arson did not lead to the death penalty, by a personal decision of Hitler he was beheaded on January 10, 1934. The four co-accused communists were acquitted.