Could the exhumation of the Reichstag fire 'arsonist' change what we think about how Hitler won the 1933 election?
Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe confessed to the attack and was sentenced to death, aged 24. Then, and for a longer time afterwards, he was considered the sole perpetrator of the fire.
There have been some debates among some historians over whether the fire was simple dumb luck, handing Hitler his re-election, or whether it was an orchestrated manoeuvre by the Nazi Party to regain power. Now, nearly 100 years on, van der Lubbe's body has been exhumed in the hope of finding a more definitive answer.
The main purpose of his exhumation was to determine whether it was indeed van der Lubbe that had been buried in the Leipzig South Cemetery.But a pathologist is also examining his remains to see if there are any traces of toxins due to speculation that he had been given to confess to his crime,There has been major support for the theory that it was solely van der Lubbe that committed the crime since Fritz Tobias published a book that argued the Reichstag fire was a "blind chance".
This theory argues that only one perpetrator could have carried out the attack as the Nazi party appeared surprised by the news, worrying that it was the beginning of a communist revolution.
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