There's an old adage that I learned in Med School to help with sifting through a number of possible diagnoses to a complicated problem. Usually, common things are common, and the esoteric diagnoses are not worth worrying about too much. It goes something like this, " When you hear hoofbeats, it's horses, not zebras". And after reading the piece by Matt Steinglass, I thought an analogy might be,
"When you hear marching hobnail boots at night in Berlin in 1933, it's Nazis, not Marinus van der Lubbe". While Mr.Steinglass studied Russian History, he obviously did not research German history very thoroughly.
The "truth" about the Reichstag fire is not entirely known, I'll admit, but most arrows point to the probability that the Nazis set it themselves, only to blame it on the Bolsheviks.
I dusted off my copy of "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", by William L Shirer, which is a classic, if one has the perseverance to endure it's 1000 odd pages; nonetheless, it is well referenced and researched, and has more detail than I can possibly remember
(obviously,since I completely forgot about Marinus van der Lubbe). Nonetheless I will paraphrase and quote some of what is written there about our friend Mr.Lubbe :
" ...that it was a crime, a Communist crime, they proclaimed at once on arrival at the fire. Goering, sweating and ..quite beside himself with excitement, was already there AHEAD of them,declaiming..as Papen later recalled,"this is a Communist crime against the new government". ...etc,etc," every Communist deputy must..be strung up".
Marinus van der Lubbe...this feeble-minded pyromaniac was a godsend to the Nazis. He had been picked up by the S.A. a few days before...and overheard in a bar boasting that he attempted to set fire to several buildings..going to try the Reichstag next.
The idea for the fire almost certainly originated with Goebbels and Goering. (supported by testimony at Nuremberg by Hans Gisevius, official in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior at the time.)
"..it was Goebbels who first thought of setting the Reichstag on fire" (similar testimony in an affidavit of Rudolf Diels, Gestapo chief).
Van der Lubbe, it seems clear, was a dupe of the Nazis . He was encouraged to try to set the Reichstag on fire. But the main job was done-without his knowledge, of course-by the storm troopers. Indeed, it was established at the subsequent trial at Leipzig that the Dutch half-wit did not possess the means to set so vast a building on fire so quickly. Two and a half minutes after he entered, the great central hall was fiercely burning. He had only his shirt for tinder. The main fires, according to the testimony of experts at the trial, had been set with considerable quantities of chemicals and gasoline...etc.""
Oh, of course Van der Lubbe was arrested immediately, and don't ya know ol'Goering wanted to hang him on the spot (ain't it jess like ol'Hermann??).
Anyways, enjoyed your post,as well as Steinglass' perspective on this, and I think it's great that David stimulated us both to check this out. So wherever you are in the world, Doc Wahoo...
Auf Wiedersehen,
Gene
Hoofbeats
Eugene
location: Maryland
listening to: Alexander Scriabin-The Solo Piano Works, Maria Lettberg
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There's an old adage that I learned in Med School to help with sifting through a number of possible diagnoses to a complicated problem. Usually, common things are common, and the esoteric diagnoses are not worth worrying about too much. It goes something like this, " When you hear hoofbeats, it's horses, not zebras". And after reading the piece by Matt Steinglass, I thought an analogy might be,
"When you hear marching hobnail boots at night in Berlin in 1933, it's Nazis, not Marinus van der Lubbe". While Mr.Steinglass studied Russian History, he obviously did not research German history very thoroughly.
The "truth" about the Reichstag fire is not entirely known, I'll admit, but most arrows point to the probability that the Nazis set it themselves, only to blame it on the Bolsheviks.
I dusted off my copy of "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", by William L Shirer, which is a classic, if one has the perseverance to endure it's 1000 odd pages; nonetheless, it is well referenced and researched, and has more detail than I can possibly remember
(obviously,since I completely forgot about Marinus van der Lubbe). Nonetheless I will paraphrase and quote some of what is written there about our friend Mr.Lubbe :
" ...that it was a crime, a Communist crime, they proclaimed at once on arrival at the fire. Goering, sweating and ..quite beside himself with excitement, was already there AHEAD of them,declaiming..as Papen later recalled,"this is a Communist crime against the new government". ...etc,etc," every Communist deputy must..be strung up".
Marinus van der Lubbe...this feeble-minded pyromaniac was a godsend to the Nazis. He had been picked up by the S.A. a few days before...and overheard in a bar boasting that he attempted to set fire to several buildings..going to try the Reichstag next.
The idea for the fire almost certainly originated with Goebbels and Goering. (supported by testimony at Nuremberg by Hans Gisevius, official in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior at the time.)
"..it was Goebbels who first thought of setting the Reichstag on fire" (similar testimony in an affidavit of Rudolf Diels, Gestapo chief).
Van der Lubbe, it seems clear, was a dupe of the Nazis . He was encouraged to try to set the Reichstag on fire. But the main job was done-without his knowledge, of course-by the storm troopers. Indeed, it was established at the subsequent trial at Leipzig that the Dutch half-wit did not possess the means to set so vast a building on fire so quickly. Two and a half minutes after he entered, the great central hall was fiercely burning. He had only his shirt for tinder. The main fires, according to the testimony of experts at the trial, had been set with considerable quantities of chemicals and gasoline...etc.""
Oh, of course Van der Lubbe was arrested immediately, and don't ya know ol'Goering wanted to hang him on the spot (ain't it jess like ol'Hermann??).
Anyways, enjoyed your post,as well as Steinglass' perspective on this, and I think it's great that David stimulated us both to check this out. So wherever you are in the world, Doc Wahoo...
Auf Wiedersehen,
Gene
"When you hear marching hobnail boots at night in Berlin in 1933, it's Nazis, not Marinus van der Lubbe". While Mr.Steinglass studied Russian History, he obviously did not research German history very thoroughly.
The "truth" about the Reichstag fire is not entirely known, I'll admit, but most arrows point to the probability that the Nazis set it themselves, only to blame it on the Bolsheviks.
I dusted off my copy of "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", by William L Shirer, which is a classic, if one has the perseverance to endure it's 1000 odd pages; nonetheless, it is well referenced and researched, and has more detail than I can possibly remember
(obviously,since I completely forgot about Marinus van der Lubbe). Nonetheless I will paraphrase and quote some of what is written there about our friend Mr.Lubbe :
" ...that it was a crime, a Communist crime, they proclaimed at once on arrival at the fire. Goering, sweating and ..quite beside himself with excitement, was already there AHEAD of them,declaiming..as Papen later recalled,"this is a Communist crime against the new government". ...etc,etc," every Communist deputy must..be strung up".
Marinus van der Lubbe...this feeble-minded pyromaniac was a godsend to the Nazis. He had been picked up by the S.A. a few days before...and overheard in a bar boasting that he attempted to set fire to several buildings..going to try the Reichstag next.
The idea for the fire almost certainly originated with Goebbels and Goering. (supported by testimony at Nuremberg by Hans Gisevius, official in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior at the time.)
"..it was Goebbels who first thought of setting the Reichstag on fire" (similar testimony in an affidavit of Rudolf Diels, Gestapo chief).
Van der Lubbe, it seems clear, was a dupe of the Nazis . He was encouraged to try to set the Reichstag on fire. But the main job was done-without his knowledge, of course-by the storm troopers. Indeed, it was established at the subsequent trial at Leipzig that the Dutch half-wit did not possess the means to set so vast a building on fire so quickly. Two and a half minutes after he entered, the great central hall was fiercely burning. He had only his shirt for tinder. The main fires, according to the testimony of experts at the trial, had been set with considerable quantities of chemicals and gasoline...etc.""
Oh, of course Van der Lubbe was arrested immediately, and don't ya know ol'Goering wanted to hang him on the spot (ain't it jess like ol'Hermann??).
Anyways, enjoyed your post,as well as Steinglass' perspective on this, and I think it's great that David stimulated us both to check this out. So wherever you are in the world, Doc Wahoo...
Auf Wiedersehen,
Gene
