Reichstag fire

Reichstagsbrand

The arson of the German parliament on 27 February 1933, which the Nazis blamed on communists and used to suspend civil liberties. Used as a metaphor for exploiting an incident to crush opponents.

The arson came exactly four weeks after Hitler became chancellor. Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch communist, was accused of setting the fire, while the Nazis claimed it was a collective communist conspiracy and persuaded President Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree, which suspended civil liberties and launched a crackdown on communists.

The "Reichstag fire" is therefore often used as a metaphor for a government exploiting an incident as a pretext to suppress political opponents. A user on French-language Lemmy used the metaphor to suggest the French government was using the riots to crack down on La France insoumise (LFI).

Last updated 2026-10-22 · 中文詞條 · Suggest a correction