Reply #48: Hitler had the Reichstag burned down.

[ellisonz]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/1310995/Historians-find-proof-that-Nazis-burnt-Reichstag.html
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,528050,00.html
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/burns.htm

William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich details how at Nuremberg, General Franz Halder stated in an affidavit that Hermann Göring had joked about setting the fire:

On the occasion of a lunch on the Führer's birthday in 1943, the people around the Führer turned the conversation to the Reichstag building and its artistic value. I heard with my own ears how Göring broke into the conversation and shouted: 'The only one who really knows about the Reichstag building is I, for I set fire to it.' And saying this he slapped his thigh.<21>

Under cross-examination at Nuremberg, Göring was read Halder's affidavit and denied he had any involvement in the fire, characterizing Halder's statement as "utter nonsense". Göring stated:

I had no reason or motive for setting fire to the Reichstag. From the artistic point of view I did not at all regret that the assembly chamber was burned; I hoped to build a better one. But I did regret very much that I was forced to find a new meeting place for the Reichstag and, not being able to find one, I had to give up my Kroll Opera House … for that purpose. The opera seemed to me much more important than the Reichstag.<22>:433

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_reichstag_fire#Dispute_about_van_der_Lubbe.27s_role_in_the_Reichstag_fire

Do we really want to debate the accepted version of events versus LIHOP and MIHOP?