‘Blind chance’ or plot? Exhumation may help solve puzzle of 1933 Reichstag blaze

Tests carried out on remains of young communist who confessed to arson attack that proved a gift to Hitler

When flames enveloped Germany’s parliament on the evening of 27 November 1933, six days before national elections, it was a political gift to Adolf Hitler, the recently appointed chancellor. The arson attack on the Reichstag by an “enemy within” secured his re-election and gave him the pretext to grab the dictatorial powers he craved.

Whether that gift fell into the Nazi leader’s lap by chance or was placed there via a covert false-flag operation has been the subject of bitter historical disputes ever since. Now, 90 years later, the body of the young communist whom historians have traditionally regarded as the sole perpetrator of the attack has been exhumed in the hope of finding a definitive answer.