Reichstag - the first Parliament in the German Empire.Before the modern building was erected, it was located in several buildings in the Leipziger Straße in Berlin.
In 1933 February 27, the Reichstag was set on fire.Historical evidence suggests that it was a provocation of the Nazis.However, if the perpetrators declared communists.Nazi propaganda inspired the masses that the Reichstag fire was the signal for the beginning of the revolution against the Communists, proving the feasibility of this, the need for widespread arrests.
The day after the incident was proclaimed a decree that suspends the operation of the constitutional articles ensuring personal civil liberties, the right to association, freedom of the press, the inviolability of private property and the home and privacy of correspondence.At the same time it introduced the death penalty for treason.
Around ten o'clock on February 27 went to the police an anonymous call.Unknown said that burning the Reichstag building.
When firefighters arrived, the building was engulfed in flames.After some time has arrived, Goebbels and Hitler.Goering also soon arrived, Hitler said that the burning of the Reichstag carried Communists.
Bypassing the building, the police stumbled on the south side at the man naked to the waist.He produces the impression of not quite normal mentally.A search and seizure, but he had no resistance.According to the detected his passport, he was called Marinus van der Lubbe.He was a citizen of the Netherlands, he was unemployed.
later was arrested Togler Ernst, one of the most popular speakers Communist, head of the Communist bloc in the Reichstag.He came to the police voluntarily to express their views on the incident.
March 9 were arrested three people staying in Germany on forged documents.They are: Georgi Dmitrov (Head of Western European Kominternovsky underground) and Bulgarian citizens Vasil Tanev and Popov Good.
All those arrested, except van der Lubbe, denied their involvement in what occurred.However, they appeared as defendants in the Leipzig trial.Van der Lubbe was sentenced to death and beheaded on the guillotine.
Despite the fact that the Nazis carried out quite a powerful propaganda campaign, either in Germany or even in the world had no doubt that the Reichstag fire was the work not of the Communists and the Nazis.
later opened many facts and details of the case.Rall, criminal arrested in another case, the investigation stated that, as a member of the protection of one of the leaders of the SA Karl Ernst, participated in the event on February 27th.He reported on the smallest details of arson.According to his testimony, Ernst summoned a group of people whose members were instructed to burn the building.Around ten o'clock, they entered through the basement of the building of the Reichstag, and scattered it on the incendiary mix.Then they returned to the Palace chairman.Along with this operation was carried out on the "Start" in the construction of Marinus van der Lubbe, who was allegedly drugged.
Goering, after evidence became known rally ordered Diels (Deputy Police) strongly impede the investigation and eliminate all the possible consequences of the proceedings.Some time later, she was found dead rally.And since been eliminated, and other members of arson.
Today the Reichstag - the political center in Germany.Some time ago, he was a symbol of the unification of West and East of the country.For many Russian citizens - a symbol of the victory of the Red Army over the Nazis, as evidenced by the surviving inscription on the Reichstag, made by Soviet soldiers.
