Why would the Nazi Party want the Reichstag Fire to be blamed on the Communist Party? - Historum

DarkLightA · May 29th, 2011, 10:17 AM

Why would the Nazi Party want the Reichstag Fire to be blamed on the Communist Party?

Thanks,
DLA

**Nemowork** · May 29th, 2011, 10:26 AM

So the middle classes would be terrified of communists destroying democracy and allow them to impose massively restrictive security laws.

DarkLightA · May 29th, 2011, 10:29 AM

Hey, that's a side I didn't think of! I only thought of the fact that it'd get rid of their extreme opponents. thanks!

**Vladd** · May 29th, 2011, 10:31 AM

So they could create patriot acts clamping down on sections of the population and the sheeple would just sit passively by applauding the government for protecting them as their rights were slowly eroded until they found themselves in a dictatorship.

Lee · May 29th, 2011, 10:37 AM

The Nazi Party wanted to consolidate their power- which in part meant suppressing the voice or actions of any political opponents. To the the Anti-Bolshevist Nazis, communism was one of these opponents, and by making them appear responsible for the Reichstag fire would turn popular opinion away from support for the communists.

Hope that helps

**srb7677** · May 29th, 2011, 03:21 PM

The Nazi party wanted to whip up anti-communist hysteria in Germany for several reasons.

It would frighten the aging conservative President Hindenburg into granting Hitler, by emergency decree, draconian powers to suppress civil liberties: this aided Nazi control of the media and suppression of their political opponents, with the first concentration camps soon being set up.

It would also frighten much of the German people and stampede more of them into voting Nazi in the March 1933 election.

It would also provide an ideal excuse to eliminate the Communist party from German politics, winning round the business and conservative elite into backing Hitler even more strongly than they had already done.

**RoyalGovnaWatts** · May 29th, 2011, 03:23 PM

Nazism is the extreme opposite of communism so they would do anything to impede its rising popularity.

**Bismarck** · May 29th, 2011, 08:28 PM

It was also a play for international sympathy - particularly from the western democracies. The Nazis hoped that international opinion would fall in behind them if they were seen to be fighting the common enemy. And it did work - for a time. Many moderates in Britain, America and France saw the Nazis as a necessary foil against the expansion of Soviet influence.

**Isoroku295** · May 29th, 2011, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vladd

So they could create patriot acts clamping down on sections of the population and the sheeple would just sit passively by applauding the government for protecting them as their rights were slowly eroded until they found themselves in a dictatorship.

sounds familiar? *cough* patriot act *cough*

Speculatin' · May 30th, 2011, 05:23 AM

The Reichstag fire? Hmm... Berlin was a city of around four million, mostly working class souls. And Berlin was (and is) traditionally left wing Socialist, and probably had sympathies toward the Bolshevists. So the Nazis may have been trying to persuade the Berliners to reject their dangerous socialist ideals and go along with the new world order; the Nazis. But what do I know?