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Biographical/Historical Information

An election for the Reichstag was set to take place on March 5, 1933. Hitler wanted to achieve a two-thirds majority so that he could change the constitution. He achieved this by silencing the left-wing opposition in the following ways. On February 4, the freedom of the press and of assembly was restricted by emergency decree. On February 25, the paramilitary SA and SS occupied the Karl-Liebknecht-Haus, the headquarters of the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD) and trade union organizations. And on February 27, the Reichstag building was set on fire. Blaming it on an attempted communist uprising, Hitler ordered the arrest of 4,000 communist functionaries. The next day, the "Emergency Decree for the Protection of the People and the State" was issued, suspending almost all basic rights. This so-called fire ordinance is the constitutional basis for Nazi rule until 1945.

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Citation

Der Reichstag in Flammen!, Leo Baeck Institute, r (f) DD 232.5 A7 1963 [V.2].