Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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On the night of February 27, 1933, the German Parliament building burned down, and democracy went along with it. In just a few hours, then a few days, the fates of an entire country and of all of Europe were upended. The Reichstag Fire was used as a pretext to establish Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship. But who set fire to it? The Dutch Marinus Van der Lubbe alone? The communists with him? Or the Nazis? Investigations into who the true arsonist or arsonists were have never reached a conclusion. Ninety years after the event, it is time to shed light on this last crucial mystery of the 20th century.

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