The German parliament building, the Reichstag, was set on fire in 1933, just one month after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Hitler claimed the Communist Party of Germany was behind the arson. Many historians say the burning of the Reichstag was actually secretly planned and ordered by the Nazis as a false flag operation, possibly under direction of military leader Hermann Göring, who later became one of the most influential members of the Nazi party.
Whatever the truth is, the Nazis used the fire as a way to gain control over Germany. On the advice of Chancellor Adolf Hitler, German President Paul von Hindenburg quickly passed the Reichstag Fire Decree, claiming the blaze marked the start of a terror campaign by the Left. The Decree was used as the legal basis for locking up anyone considered to be opponents of the Nazi party, and to stamp out news media and other publications that weren’t in line with the Nazi cause (the Nazis popularized the term “lugenpresse” or “lying press”). The Decree – similar to declaring a National Emergency -- was ultimately used to establish a one-party Nazi state in Germany.
The Reichstag Fire Decree indefinitely suspended most of the civil liberties outlined in the Weimar Constitution, such as habeas corpus, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, the right of free association and public assembly, the privacy of mail and telephone communication, and protections of property. Under the Decree, unwarranted searches of homes, “preventative detention” by the police, and confiscations of property were allowed.
A few weeks after the passage of the Decree, Hitler’s party passed the Enabling Act, which gave his cabinet the legal power to decree laws without being passed by the German parliament.
The combined Enabling Act and Reichstag Fire Decree formed the legal basis for Hitler’s dictatorship - he ruled under what amounted to martial law throughout the Nazi reign.
As my mother might say, “what does all of this have to do with the price of beans?” I wish I could answer, “Nothing at all. It’s simply a review of a horrifying period of history.” But as Yale history professor Timothy Snyder writes in his article The Reichstag Warning, “the aspiring tyrants of today have not forgotten the lesson of 1933: that acts of terror—real or fake, provoked or accidental—can provide the occasion to deal a death blow to democracy...The Reichstag fire has long been an example for tyrants; it should today be a warning for citizens.”
*Note: In 2005, Silver City, Nevada residents passed a resolution during their town advisory board meeting affirming the Bill of Rights and opposing the overreaching sections of the PATRIOT Act, including 215, the section that the National Security Agency (NSA). The resolution emphasized the need to strike the appropriate balance between security and liberty. The purpose of the resolution was to promote respect for the Bill of Rights. It also "raised the bar of constitutional protection by re-establishing a minimum evidentiary requirement of probable cause before local resources are employed in the detention, investigation, or surveillance of an individual, or the collection or sharing of his/her confidential data. The resolution also prohibited the use of local resources for immigration enforcement, which is the responsibility of the federal government, and it affirmed Silver City's commitment not to engage in racial or ethnic profiling.”
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