Burning the Reichstag: An Investigation into the Third Reich’s Enduring Mystery

Historian Hett (Crossing Hitler) applies his dual expertise as a scholar and former trial lawyer to reopen discussion of an aspect of Nazi Germany widely considered settled: who set the Reichstag on fire in 1933? The research of such historians as Fritz Tobias and Hans Mommsen have contributed to a general consensus that the fire, which inaugurated the final stage of Hitler’s seizure of power, was the work of one man: Dutch Communist Martinus van der Lubbe. This was as the Nazis claimed—that the fire was the work of the Comintern. But the Communists contended that the arson was linked to the Nazis, and the issue is still debated today. Hett, using fresh sources and archives, presents a nuanced and complex perspective. In his telling, the fire emerges as “a tale launched, shaped, and reshaped by power and interest,” right down to the present day. Hett painstakingly reconstructs the roots of the “rival narratives” about the fire that “snapped into place literally overnight.” He is equally precise in demonstrating the dynamics of van der Lubbe’s trial (ultimately, he was beheaded), and in raising the still-opaque question of direct Nazi involvement in the fire’s setting. Hett’s major contribution is his analysis of the trial as a case study in “a particular constellation of political pressure and the state of knowledge of Nazi crimes” in West Germany during the 1950s and 60s. (Jan.)