On the evening of 27 February 1933, a fire destroyed large parts of the Reichstag building in Berlin. The arsonist, a self-confessed communist, was arrested at the scene of the crime. Although he claimed sole responsibility for the fire, the Nazi leadership immediately spoke of a larger communist conspiracy and an attempted uprising.

Adolf Hitler had been appointed Reich Chancellor just under a month earlier, on 30th January 1933. Now he used the Reichstag fire to suspend the fundamental rights of the constitution with an emergency decree the very next day and to strengthen the National Socialist dictatorship. From then on, political opponents could be persecuted and eliminated without evidence or court trials. The political left therefore declared that the Nazis themselves had set fire to the Reichstag.

Both claims remain unclarified to this day.