After the November 1932 German federal election, the Nazi Party had a plurality, not a majority; the Communists posted gains. Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellorand head of the coalition government on 30 January 1933. As

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Shortly after 9 p.m. on 27 February 1933, the Reichstag building was reported as on fire, and firefighters were dispatched. Despite their efforts, most

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The day after the fire, at Hitler's request, President Hindenburg signed the Reichstag Fire Decree into law by using Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. The Reichstag Fire Decree suspended

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According to historian Ian Kershaw, by 1998, nearly all historians agreed that Van der Lubbe had set the Reichstag on fire, that he had acted alone, and that the incident was merely a stroke of good luck for the Nazis. However, in the days following the incident,

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• A Lesson in History
• List of attacks on legislatures

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• Review of Bahar and Kugel book
• Van der Lubbe exonerated by German courts Archived 13 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine

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In July 1933, Marinus van der Lubbe, Ernst Torgler, Georgi Dimitrov, Blagoi Popov, and Vasil Tanevwere indicted on charges of setting the Reichstag on

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