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Though there had been no violence In Hamburg, the government of the Free City was seized under President von Hindenburg's decree "to check Communist violence imperiling the State."
Exulted Chancellor Hitler: "The National revolution is on its way and will continue!"
Living Shields, Boiling Oil. Before German Democracy could thus be downed this week, the Hitler Cabinet had to launch last week a juggernaut of super-suppressive measures & decrees for which they needed an excuse. What excuse could be better than the colossal act of arson which had just sent a $1,500,000 fire roaring through the Reichstag Building (TIME, March 6) gutting completely the brown oak Reichstag Chamber and ruining its great dome of gilded copper and glass?**
The Reichstag fire was set by Communists, police promptly charged. Over a nationwide radio hookup the Minister of Interior for Prussia, blustering Nazi Captain Hermann Wilhelm Goring, cried: "The Reichstag fire was to have been the signal for the outbreak of open civil war! . . . The Communists had in readiness 'terror squads' of 200 each. . . . These were to commit their dastardly acts disguised as units of our own Nazi Storm Troops and the Stahlhelm. . . . The women and children of high Government officials were to have been kidnapped as hostages and used in the civil war as 'living shields'! . . .
"The Communists had organized to poison food . . . and burn down granaries throughout the Reich. . . . They planned to use every kind of weapon—even hot water, knives and forks and boiling oil! . . .
"From all these horrors we have saved the Fatherland! We want to state clearly that the measures taken are not a mere defense against Communism. Ours is a fight to the finish until Communism has been absolutely uprooted in Germany!"
Versailles Violated. Measures taken included flat violation of the Treaty of Versailles by raising the number of Germans under arms. Pistols and in many cases rifles were issued to some 60,000 so-called "auxiliary Prussian police" made up as follows: 50% ordinary troopers from the Nazi Sturmabteilung; 30% picked Nazi shock troops from the Schutzstaffel, Hitler's Praetorian Guard; 20% members of the Stahlhelm ("Steel Helmets"), War veterans' association whose leader is Minister of Labor Herr Franz Seldte, rich bottler of soda water. With astounding boldness the State ordered that men drafted as "auxiliaries" while holding jobs shall continue to be paid their full wages, irrespective of how much or little time police duties leave them for their regular work. Thus Germany's employer class was saddled by adroit Chancellor Hitler with most of the burden of supporting what amounts to an additional force of 60.000 fully armed Germans.*
Constitution Crimped. With the Reichstag fire as his excuse, weary old President Paul von Hindenburg signed a decree giving Chancellor Hitler & Cabinet a tyrant's powers. Totally suspended by this decree are the following seven articles of the German Constitution (some of them already modified by previous laws & decrees) :
Article 114, which provided that "freedom of the person may not be impaired."
Article 115: "The home of every German is his place of refuge and may not be violated. . . ."