Funny pictures

Hitler and Weimar Republic

The Nazi programme promised something to everyone so it was superficially attractive as a means of solving Germany's problems. For example, to the landowner and the industrialist class, Hitler promised to be a bulwark against Communism - and with the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s the Communists were becoming stronger as unemployment grew and the threat of a Soviet revolution in Germany was real. To the middle classes, he promised to abolish the Treaty of Versailles and relieve them of the burden of reparations payment which held back the economy. To the workers, he promised economic and social reforms. To the army, he promised military glory.
After being appointed Chancellor by Hindenburg in January 1933 the first thing he did was to arrange for an election to secure a pro-Nazi majority in the Reichstag.
In late February, the Reichstag building was burnt down and the Communists were falsely accused of using it as a signal for Communist insurrection. Exploiting this for all its worth Hitler asked for emergency power from President Hindenburg and was granted it, and that led to the establishment of the first concentration camps in which trade unionists, communists., liberals etc were incarcerated, which quite neatly disrupted his main political opponents.
In the Reichstag election that followed, the Nazis banned the Communist and Socialist newspapers and made widespread use of the new medium of radio to broadcast Nazi propaganda.

The Reichstag on FIRE!

At 9.25pm, the Berlin fire station receieved an alarm call that the Reichstag building, the assembly location of the German Parliament, was ablaze.
By the time the firefighters came, the main Chamber of Deputies was engulfed by flames.
The fire was used as evidence by the Nazis that the Communists were beginning a plot against the German government. Adolf Hitler, who had been sworn in as Chancellor of Germany four weeks before, on 30 January, urged President Paul von Hindenburg to pass an emergency decree to counter the "ruthless confrontation of the Communist Party of Germany".
With civil liberties suspended, the government instituted mass arrests of Communists, including all of the Communist parliamentary delegates. With them gone and their seats empty, the Nazis went from being a plurality party to the majority; subsequent elections confirmed this position and thus allowed Hitler to consolidate his power.
Well,historians disagree as to whether Van der Lubbe acted alone or if the Communists or Nazis were involved. The responsibility for the Reichstag fire remains an ongoing topic of debate and research.