27th Feb 1933 ⇒ Reichstag Building was burnt down At first ⇒ many Germans felt that this was the work of the Nazi party themselves ⇒ later turned out to be the work of a lone and mentally unstable communist Marinus Van der Lubbe.
Hitler ⇒ immediately ⇒ declared that the fire was the beginning of a communist uprising. → persuaded Hindenburg to pass the decree for the protection of the people and the state ⇒ gave Hitler sweeping emergency powers
- Police, SA, SS ⇒ arrested 4000 communists on the night of the fire alone.
- Opposition party meetings, newspapers and radio broadcasts ⇒ were also banned.
- Made it hard for opposition parties to campagin
Elections of 5th March ⇒ Nazis gained 288 seats. ⇒ with support of 52 delegates from German national people’s party ⇒ they had 52% of seats.