Reichstag Fire Facts & Worksheets

• The trial attracted huge media attention, both in Germany and abroad. Goebbels’ Propaganda Ministry managed the flow of information to the foreign press, and nearly eighty foreign correspondents attended, along with forty German journalists. Radio broadcasts and newspaper coverage ensured that the trial was widely publicised, as the Nazis hoped to use it to present their version of events to the world.
• One of the most dramatic moments came when Georgi Dimitrov, one of the Bulgarian defendants, gave his testimony. Dimitrov chose to defend himself without a court-appointed lawyer and frequently clashed with Göring in the courtroom. On 4 November 1933, Dimitrov questioned Göring and showed that the Nazi story did not add up. He pointed out that important evidence, like Van der Lubbe’s supposed Communist Party card, was false. Dimitrov also suggested that senior Nazis might have started the fire, challenging the claim that it was a communist plot.
• When the verdict was announced on 23 December, the court acquitted Torgler, Dimitrov, Tanev and Popov, citing insufficient evidence to link them to the fire. Van der Lubbe alone was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was executed by guillotine on 10 January 1934, just three days before his 25th birthday. The outcome embarrassed the Nazis, and Hitler subsequently removed political trials from the regular court system, establishing the People’s Court (Volksgerichtshof) to try treason and political crimes, which later became notorious for handing down numerous death sentences.
• Over the decades, Van der Lubbe’s conviction was revisited. In 1967, a West Berlin court allowed the conviction to stand but reduced his sentence to eight years. In 1981, a West German court posthumously overturned the conviction on the grounds of insanity. Finally, in January 2008, he was officially pardoned under a law that declared anyone convicted under Nazi Germany’s laws not guilty, recognising that the Nazi legal system had violated basic principles of justice.

Van der Lubbe and Nazi Involvement

• The Reichstag fire has been debated by historians for many years, mainly about who caused it and how the Nazis used it to gain power. Much of the discussion is about whether Marinus van der Lubbe acted by himself or was used by the Nazis.
• Some historians argue that Van der Lubbe acted alone. He was a young Dutch communist with a history of arson and political protest. Fritz Tobias, a West German historian in the 1960s, pointed to Van der Lubbe’s previous attempts to burn buildings as evidence that he was capable of setting the Reichstag on fire by himself. Ian Kershaw and Benjamin Carter Hett have noted that most historians believe Van der Lubbe did start the fire alone, and the Nazis simply exploited the event to gain power. 
• However, other historians and sources suggest that the Nazis may have been involved. Witness accounts, such as the British reporter Sefton Delmer, observed Hitler on the night of the fire appearing uncertain about how it began and eager to present it as a communist plot. Observers noted that both Nazis and communists tried to use Van der Lubbe for propaganda, with each side claiming he worked for the other. Some historians, including William Shirer, argued that Van der Lubbe may have been a dupe: encouraged to set a small fire while the Nazis prepared larger fires with chemicals, making it impossible for one person to carry out the full attack. 
• The ‘countertrial’ organised by German communists in exile in 1933 also claimed that leading Nazis, including Hermann Göring, were behind the fire, and that Van der Lubbe was innocent. While the countertrial had limited legal weight, it drew international attention and helped spread the view that the Nazis manipulated the event for political gain. 
• In 1955, SA member Hans-Martin Lennings testified that the Reichstag was already burning when Van der Lubbe arrived with his squad, suggesting Nazi involvement. Some historians argue that the Nazi-controlled police and judicial system destroyed or suppressed evidence, and that this, combined with later post-war politics, has made it difficult to establish the full truth. There are also reports that Göring boasted of starting the fire, although he denied this at the Nuremberg Trials.
• While Van der Lubbe likely acted in some capacity, many historians emphasise that the Nazis immediately exploited the fire to arrest communists, intimidate other opposition parties, and pass the Reichstag Fire Decree and later the Enabling Act.