After his first fifteen minutes of fame in 1933, the Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe became a footnote to the history of the period, and his name is largely unknown to the general public. He fits the classic profile of a “false flag” patsy: a mentally disturbed and/or deficient individual who was recruited and groomed by an intelligence service to carry out an attack that would be blamed on a target group.

In Mr. Van der Lubbe’s case, the attack was the burning of the Reichstag building in Berlin in February of 1933. He was convicted and sentenced to death for his alleged arson, and his purported action was used to justify various stringent measures imposed by the new Nazi government as it consolidated its power.

I don’t know whether or not Marinus van der Lubbe was in fact guilty of setting the fire in the Reichstag. But he was useful to the regime, and now serves as an archetype for false flag operations.

A side note: he was also honored in a “Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers” comic strip in the 1960s, where Freewheelin’ Franklin torches a car while yelling: “Long live the Marinus van der Lubbe International Firebombing Society!” I’ve combed through my collection of old underground comics, but have so far been unable to locate that particular strip.

Many thanks to Gary Fouse for translating this article from the Dutch daily De Volkskrant:

Body of Van der Lubbe identified, no evidence that he was drugged

The body exhumed in February in Leipzig is, indeed, that of the arsonist of the German Reichstag building in 1933. But evidence that Marinus van der Lubbe was drugged during his trial not found.

June 17, 2023

The municipality of Leipzig made the announcement on the basis of the toxicological investigation. The investigation was originally supposed to last a few weeks, but has just now been publicized. The Dutch Communist, Van der Lubbe, was sentenced to death in Leipzig in 1933 on suspicion of setting the fire in the Reichstag building in Berlin.

Via witnesses at the time and later through historians, it was repeatedly maintained that Van der Lubbe made an apathetic impression in the courtroom where he made a confession. Possibly that was because he was drugged. It is also disputed whether he was the actual arsonist.

Thus, based on the toxicological investigation, there is no indication that he made his confession under the influence of drugs. Nevertheless, according to the investigators, it cannot be completely ruled out that Van der Lubbe was drugged. According to the report, it is possible that no evidence was found because of the decomposition process, “due to the long period between death and the exhumation.”

The investigators have been able to show that the bones in the grave are actually the remains of Van der Lubbe. DNA samples from a tooth were compared with a saliva sample from a grandson of Van der Lubbe’s brother. In addition, an historical rumor was debunked. According to some sources, Van der Lubbe was buried at “double the depth” in order to prevent an exhumation, but the exhumation showed that the body was buried at the regular depth of two meters.

Marinus van der Lubbe was born in Leiden in 1909. On February 27, 1933, he was arrested by German police in the burning Reichstag building in Berlin shortly after Adolf Hitler came to power. In December of that year, Van der Lubbe was sentenced to death. On January 10, 1934, he was beheaded at the age of 24.