The Reichstag building in Berlin was constructed to house the Reichstag, parliament of the German Empire. It was opened in 1894 and housed the Reichstag until 1933, when it was severely damaged in a fire supposedly set by Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe, who was later beheaded for the crime. That verdict has been a subject of controversy over the years. The National Socialist Party (NSDAP) used this event as a casus belli to begin a purge o...
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The Reichstag building in Berlin was constructed to house the Reichstag, parliament of the German Empire. It was opened in 1894 and housed the Reichstag until 1933, when it was severely damaged in a fire supposedly set by Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe, who was later beheaded for the crime. That verdict has been a subject of controversy over the years. The National Socialist Party (NSDAP) used this event as a casus belli to begin a purge of opponents of the Nazi Party in Berlin and to ban the Communist Party of Germany. Marinus van der Lubbe was officially pardoned by the German state in January 2008, 75 years after his conviction and execution. In 1967 a Berlin court had symbolically changed the sentence of van der Lubbe to an eight-year prison term and in 1980 the same court had lifted the sentence altogether. In 1981 a West German court overturned the conviction of van der Lubbe on the grounds that he was insane, however campaigners pressed for full state pardon on account...
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