Dutch labourer, radical activist and communist.
Marinus van der Lubbe was the youngest of the five children of the maiden Petronella van Handel (5 November 1870 5 AM, Gemert – 17 June 1921, Den Bosch). His mother, who had already four living children from her earlier marriage to Johannes Peute (27 December 1851, Zierikzee – 18 June 1919, Utrecht) , married his father, the hawker Franciscus Cornelis van der Lubbe (31 October 1863 11 AM, Den Haag – 1933, Leiden) on 1 June 1904. The family moved a lot because of debts and impossibility to pay the rents. In 1914 his father left the family. They now were extremely poor. After the death of his mother, he was only 12, he lived with the Christian half sister of his mother, the family Peute in Oegstgeest.
Marinus became a stonemason after finishing the primary school with poor results and was called “Dempsey” after the boxer Jack Dempsey, because of his great strength. Via his work he came in contact with the labour movement. In 1925 he joined the youth section of the Dutch Communist Party (CPN).
In 1925 and 1927 he got alkaline lime dust in his eyes at work, that lastly blinded him for 75%. In 1927 he spent in hospital for months and definitely lost his job. He lived his life in poverty with an invalid pension of only 7.44 guilders a week. He went to Leiden in 1927, got politically involved and was arrested twice: Because of resistance against the police during a demonstration and throwing a brick-stone at the “Maatschappelijk Hulpbetoon” (now Social Affairs). He needed more money to get along. Van der Lubbe preferred to work to earn his money, but he was also very sensitive to social injustice. He wanted to sacrifice himself for this. During a strike, while working for the Tielmann factory, he took the sole responsibility for it. And for the Reichstag fire he also took full responsibility, though many other agitators played a role in it.
In April 1931 he left the Communist Party. As an “Einzelgänger” he had little affinity with Stalinist party discipline and converted to the ideas of the anarchist Trotsky. That same year 1931, he wanted to travel to the supposed Workers Paradise Russia, in which he still believed, but his journey was hampered in Berlin (Spring 1931), Yugoslavia (Autumn 1931) and ended with 3 weeks cell in Poland (April 1932). Back in Holland, he was in prison from July till October 1932 for violation of the law. In Jan 1933 he spent three weeks in hospital because of his bad eyes.
In February 1933 he arrived in Germany. Few day later he was accused of burning the Reichstag on 27 February 1933, a week before elections, supposedly as a protest to the poor condition of the German working class. He was caught 9h15 PM being around or within the burning Reichstag. As the fire spread so quickly Van der Lubbe should have had helpers, but he would deny this.
During his trial in Leipzig from 21 September 1933 – 23 December 1933, the Nazi’s tried to proof that Van der Lubbe was helped by Communists, whilst Communists believed that the Nazi’s had set the Reichtstag on fire, to get an excuse for their persecution of political opponents. According to Sebastian Haffner the Nazi’s started their state terrorism the next day 28 February 1933 with declaring the state of emergency. But already on 22 March 1933 Himmler had opened Dachau as “the first concentration camp for political prisoners” with a capacity for 5000 prisoners.
During the Neurenberg trial General Franz Halder stated under oath that Göring on 20 April 1942 boasted that he set the Reichstag on fire. According to the Dutch Wikipedia Bruno Loerzer declared 28 Februari 1933: “Ich habe von meinem Freunde Göring mit einer Gruppe von SA-Männernen Auftrag bekommen, den Reichstag anzuzünden.”
Marinus van der Lubbe was executed by beheading with an axe in the early morning on 01/10/1934, Leipzig, Germany.
Link to Wikipedia