Marinus van der Lubbe
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Marinus van der Lubbe | |
---|---|
High treason and arson crime | |
Criminal penalty | Death |
Criminal status | Executed (Posthumously pardoned on 6 December 2007) |
Marinus van der Lubbe (13 January 1909 – 10 January 1934) was a
Early life
Marinus van der Lubbe was born in Leiden in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands.[2] His parents were divorced, and after his mother died when he was twelve years old, he went to live with his half-sister's family in the town of Oegstgeest. During part of his youth van der Lubbe worked as a bricklayer. He was nicknamed Dempsey after boxer Jack Dempsey because of his great strength. While working, van der Lubbe became acquainted with the labour movement; in 1925, at age 16, he joined the Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN) and its youth section, the Communist Youth Bund (CJB).
In 1926 he was injured at work, getting
Afterwards, van der Lubbe planned to emigrate to the USSR, but he lacked the funds to do so. He was active politically among unemployed workers until 1931, when he had a disagreement with the CPN and instead approached the Group of International Communists.[citation needed] In 1933, van der Lubbe fled to Germany to work for communism there. He had a criminal record for several attempted arsons.[3]
Reichstag fire
On 27 February 1933, van der Lubbe was arrested in the Reichstag building, soon after the building had begun burning. Van der Lubbe confessed and claimed to have acted alone and have set the Reichstag building afire in an attempt to rally German workers against fascist rule.[4]
He was tried along with the chief of the
After
Claimed responsibility
Historians disagree as to whether van der Lubbe acted alone, as he said, to protest the condition of the German working class, or was involved in a larger conspiracy. The Nazis blamed a communist conspiracy. Responsibility for the Reichstag fire remains an ongoing topic of debate and research in modern historical scholarship.
Lex van der Lubbe
"Lex van der Lubbe" is the colloquial term for the Nazi law concerning the imposition and execution of the death penalty, passed on 29 March 1933. The name comes from the fact that the law formed the legal basis for the imposition of the death penalty against van der Lubbe.
The Reichstag Fire Decree of 28 February 1933 included a list of crimes for which the death penalty was to be imposed instead of a life sentence, as was previously the case. The law concerning the imposition and execution of the death penalty was passed by Hitler's government on 29 March (on the basis of the Enabling Act which had been passed on 23 March 1933). It extended the law retroactively to 31 January 1933, thereby violating Article 116 of the Weimar Constitution, which prohibited retroactive penalties. The Enabling Act itself, however, made this legislation constitutional, provided the office of the president and the Reichstag and Reichsrat were not affected.[10] It could thus be applied to van der Lubbe, who had admitted in court that he had set fire to the Reichstag on 27 February.
The law was ultimately repealed by the Allied Control Council on 30 January 1946 through Control Council Act No. 11.
Exhumation
In January 2023, bodily remains at van der Lubbe's supposed grave were exhumed. This was done to ascertain the precise location and identity of the grave, as well as to allow for a toxicological analysis. Van der Lubbe had appeared sleepy and apathetic during his trial, resulting in suspicions that he had been drugged.[4][11] These remains were determined to be van der Lubbe's after several months of forensic investigations. The toxicology report showed no evidence that van der Lubbe had been administered drugs, although it was noted that due to decomposition it is impossible to scientifically prove one way or the other and that the question remains open.[12]
References
- ^ "75 years on, executed Reichstag arsonist finally wins pardon". the Guardian. 12 January 2008. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
- ^ "BS Geboorte met Marinus van der Lubbe". Stadsarchief van Leiden. WieWasWie. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-14-303469-8.
- ^ a b Oltermann, Philip (26 February 2023). "'Blind chance' or plot? Exhumation may help solve puzzle of 1933 Reichstag blaze". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
- ^ "The Reichstag Fire". Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
- ^ DW Staff (27 February 2008). "75 Years Ago, Reichstag Fire Sped Hitler's Power Grab". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
- .
- ^ Shirer, William (1960). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Simon & Schuster.
- ^ Kershaw, Ian (1998). Hitler Hubris. Penguin Books. pp. 456–458, 731–732.
- OCLC 1412891584.
- ^ Herrmann, Boris (9 March 2023). "Der Rest ist Geschichte". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 9 March 2023.
- ^ "Body of arsonist Marinus van der Lubbe identified – no drug residue". www.spiegel.de. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
Other sources
- Bahar, Alexander; Kugel, Wilfried (2013). Der Reichstagsbrand Geschichte einer Provokation [The Reichstag fire: History of a Provocation] (in German). Köln: PapyRossa-Verl. OCLC 835307042.
- Fischler, Hersch (15 October 2005). "Zum Zeitablauf der Reichstagsbrandstiftung. Korrekturen der Untersuchung Alfred Berndts" [On the timeline of the Reichstag arson. Corrections to Alfred Berndt’s investigation]. Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte. 53 (4): 617–632. OCLC 7824744120.
- Schouten, Martin (2008). Marinus van der Lubbe: een biografie [Marinus van der Lubbe: a biography] (in Dutch). Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij. OCLC 227149687.
- Steven (22 September 2006). "Lubbe, Marinus van der 1911-1934". libcom.org. Archived from the original on 19 September 2021.
Further reading
- OCLC 403938.
External links
- Bourrinet, Philippe (29 March 2007). "Dutch council communism and Van der Lubbe burning the Reichstag: The question of "exemplary acts"". libcom.org. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
- "Legal Ruling – DW – 01/11/2008". Deutsche Welle. 11 January 2008. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
Germany's federal prosecutor has overturned the guilty verdict passed on Marinus van der Lubbe
- "Water and Fire (Water en Vuur) - 1998, 90'". Zuidenwind Filmproductions. Archived from the original on 2 March 2009. Retrieved 1 June 2024.