Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris

Reichstagsbrand und seine politischen Folgen’,
VfZ,
I2 (1964), 351–413), that Marinus van der Lubbe acted alone, are compelling and are now widely accepted, though not by Klaus P. Fischer,
Nazi Germany: A New History,
London, 1995, 272. The counter-claims of the Luxemburg Committee (see Walther Hofer
et al.
(eds.),
Der Reichstagsbrand. Eine wissenschaftliche Dokumentation,
2 vols., Berlin, 1972, Munich, 1978), that the Nazis were indeed the perpetrators, are regarded by most experts as flawed. The consequences of the Reichstag fire were, of course, always more important than the identity of whoever instigated the blaze. But the question of authorship was nevertheless of significance, since it revolved around the question of whether the Nazis were following through carefully laid plans to institute totalitarian rule, or whether they were improvising reactions to events they had not expected. (See, for an assessment and re-evaluation of the debate, Backes
et al., Reichstagsbrand.
The latest rekindling of the debate has again, following careful research in sources that have only recently become available, led to the conclusion that van der Lubbe acted alone. – See Klaus Wiegrefe, ‘Flammendes Fanal’,
Der Spiegel,
I5 (2001), 38–58, which convincingly defends Tobias’ version against the counter-interpretation of a Nazi conspiracy, advanced once more in Jürgen Schmädeke, Alexander Bahar, and Wilfried Kugel, ‘Der Reichstagsbrand in neuem licht’,
Historische Zeitschrift,
269 (1999), 603–51.)
    113 . Hanfstaengl, 15
Jahre,
291–5.
    114 . Goebbels,
Kaiserhof,
269–70 (27 February 1933),
TBJG,
I.2, 383.
    115 . Heiden,
Führer,
434–7; Bracher
et al., Machtergreifung,
i.123–4.
    116 . Mommsen, ‘Van der Lubbes Weg’, 44–7.
    117 . Mommsen ‘Van der Lubbes Weg’, 40–41.
    118 . Mommsen ‘Der Reichstagsbrand’, 382–3.
    119 . Mommsen ‘Van der Lubbes Weg’, 47–8; Mommsen, ‘Der Reichstagsbrand’, 384. Hitler appears at first, however, to have been less than wholly certain that itwas the work of the Communists (Sefton Delmer,
Trail Sinister,
London, 1961, 187–9).
    120 . Rudolf Diels,
Lucifer ante Portas,
Stuttgart, 1950, 194; Mommsen, ‘Der Reichstagsbrand’, 116.
    121 . Delmer,
Trail,
I89; Mommsen, ‘Der Reichstagsbrand’, 384.
    122 . Diels, 194–5; Mommsen, ‘Der Reichstagsbrand’, 362, 385 and n. 143. Göring’s order to arrest all Social Democrat functionaries was omitted when the telex was transmitted.
    123 .
TBJG,
I.2, 383 (27 February 1933), gives the opposite impression, though this version of his diaries was the published account (Goebbels,
Kaiserhof,
270).
    124 . Diels, 195; Mommsen, ‘Der Reichstagsbrand’, 362, 386.
    125 .
TBJG,
I.2, 383 (Goebbels,
Kaiserhof,
270); Mommsen, ‘Der Reichstagsbrand’, 390.
    126 . Mommsen, ‘Der Reichstagsbrand’, 389–90.
    127 . Mommsen ‘Van der Lubbes Weg’, 51;
AdR, Reg. Hitler,
I30 and n.12: Frick expressly stated that he had based the decree on Papen’s decree for the ‘Restoration of Public Security and Order in Greater Berlin and the Province of Brandenburg’, of 20 July 1932.
    128 . Mommsen ‘Van der Lubbes Weg’, 51–3.
    129 .
AdR, Reg. Hitler,
I30–31.
    130 .
RGBl,
I933. I. Nr.17, 83.
    131 .
AdR, Reg. Hitler,
I28.
    132 . See e.g. Kessler,
Tagebücher,
710.
    133 . Hans-Norbert Burkert, Klaus Matußek and Wolfgang Wippermann,
‘Machtergreifung’ Berlin 1933,
Berlin, 1982, 65.
    134 . Hans Buchheim
et al., Anatomie des SS-Staates,
2 vols., Olten/Freiburg im Breisgau, 1965, ii.20.
    135 .
Miesbacher Anzeiger,
2 March 1933.
    136 .
VB,
2 March 1933; and see Bracher
et al., Machtergreifung,
i.124–5, 515 n.17.
    137 . Jochmann,
Natonalsozialismus und Revolution,
427–8.
    138 . Jochmann,
Nationalsozialismus und Revolution,
427.
    139 . Jochmann,
Nationalsozialismus und Revolution,
426.
    140 . Domarus, 216–17; Goebbels,
Kaiserhof,
273–4 (4 March 1933),
TBJG,
I.2, 386.
    141 . Falter
et al., Wahlen,
44. (See the analysis in Bracher
et al., Machtergreifung,
i.143–90.)
    142 . Goebbels,
Kaiserhof,
275 (5 March 1933),
TBJG,
I.2, 387.
    143 . Martin H. Sommerfeld,
Ich war dabei. Die Verschwörung der Dämonen 1933–1939. Ein Augenzeugenbericht,
Darmstadt, 1949, 32.
    144 . Falter
et al., Wahlen,
44; Falter,
Hitlers Wähler, 111
–12.
    145 . Falter
et al., Wahlen,
74–5. And see Falter,
Hitlers Wähler,
I86–8. In Catholic rural districts of Bavaria, a double or even trebling of the Nazi vote was common (Hagmann, 12–27,