The Patriot Post® · January 6, 2021: A Reichstag Fire Redux?

By Nick Peirce

Going into the new year of 1933, Germany was a country in crisis. Following years of inflation, unemployment, and political strife, various political factions were in open conflict. The influence of the Communist Party was especially threatening to the government of the Weimar Republic. In Berlin, on February 27, 1933, the German Reichstag (parliament building) was destroyed by fire only four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as chancellor and before he was able to establish himself as the Nazi dictator. The fire was blamed on a Dutch Communist by the name of Marinus van der Lubbe, who was subsequently convicted of arson and executed.

In the aftermath of the fire, Hitler asked German President Paul von Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag and call for a new parliamentary election. He did so, and following the election Hitler had the new parliament pass the Enabling Act, which gave him authority to pass laws by decree without having to go through the Parliament. Following passage of the Act, the Nazis insisted the fire was an assault on the government by Communists and authorized their mass roundup and arrests.

The origins of the fire remain controversial to this day. Interestingly, Walter Gempp (who, was chief of the Berlin Fire Department) had been in charge of the fire department’s response to the Reichstag fire. He testified that he had evidence suggesting Nazi involvement in the fire. He was dismissed from his post, and in 1937 was arrested. On May 2, 1939, he was strangled in prison.

Regardless of who set the fire or why it was set, the Nazis certainly knew it presented a golden opportunity to consolidate power. In the words of politicians from Machiavelli to Rahm Emanuel, the Nazis knew they should not let the “crisis go to waste.” The rest, of course, is history.

What does this have to do with the events of January 6, 2021?

Clearly, something bad happened in the Capitol building, but it didn’t take long for the Democrats to set forth a horrific narrative. They claim what happened was an armed insurrection to prevent the peaceful transfer of government, and perhaps even that plus an effort to kill members of Congress.

This narrative has been accompanied by the posting of National Guard troops around the Capitol, the closing of the building itself to the public, and an effort to conduct a massive roundup and arrest of those present in the Capitol building on January 6. Extraordinary and possibly even illegal methods were used by federal law enforcement personnel to identify the so-called “terrorists” who participated in the “insurrection.” There remain questions about a termination date for the deployment of National Guard troops or for the removal of the fences and razor wire that has been installed.

There has been almost no counter-narrative explaining the events of January 6. This may well be in part because social media and mainstream news outlets will not carry any alternate explanation of what happened. In spite of that, we have learned that no arrests were made for possession of weapons, and the only person killed by firearms was a woman who was shot by the police. It was originally reported that a Capitol Police officer was beaten to death by a person wielding a fire extinguisher, but that has since been dropped owing to the likelihood that he actually died of other causes.

What actually happened? It’s clear that people did enter the Capitol building and that there was some physical damage to property and some things were stolen. Who did these things? The Democrat narrative places the blame squarely on President Donald Trump, claiming he intentionally incited otherwise peaceful protesters to help him overthrow the government. However, there is no compelling evidence to support this, and the consolidation of power by the Democrats continues, just like it did for the German Nazis.