February 27, 1933

Reichstag fire

Fire destroys the Reichstag's plenary chamber

The highest alarm went out at 9:42 p.m. By about eleven the chamber was a ruin — and the arrests had already begun.

The evening of 27 February 1933

An arson fire erupted in Berlin's Reichstag building on the evening of 27 February 1933. Firefighters raised the highest alarm at 9:42 p.m., and the wood-panelled plenary chamber burned out completely before the fire was brought under control around 11 p.m.

The chamber was destroyed. The masonry building as a whole was not burned to the ground.

Arrested inside, confessing at once

Police arrested Marinus van der Lubbe, a 24-year-old Dutch council communist, inside the burning parliament. He confessed immediately and denied having accomplices.

The Nazi leadership blamed the Communist Party regardless and cast the fire as the opening signal of an attempted uprising. Hitler and Joseph Goebbels went to the Reichstag on hearing of it, while Hermann Göring, acting Prussian interior minister, directed official measures at the scene.

What the evidence settles, and what it does not

Arson caused the fire and van der Lubbe's physical involvement is well established. Whether he acted entirely alone or was assisted or exploited by Nazis remains contested, and four Communist co-defendants were later acquitted for lack of evidence.

Terror against political opponents began that night, with Communists and Social Democrats the principal immediate targets. The Reichstag Fire Decree, suspending enumerated constitutional rights until further notice, was signed by Hindenburg the following day.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources 2 audit passes

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

The date and physical fire are certain; responsibility beyond van der Lubbe remains contested.
The surviving evidence does not prove the Nazi claim that the fire signaled a Communist uprising. Four Communist co-defendants were later acquitted for lack of evidence.
Modern accounts differ over whether van der Lubbe acted alone, was assisted, or was deliberately delivered to the scene. The Nazis' rapid exploitation of the fire is not disputed.