Lubbe, Marines van der, “Dempsey”.

Lubbe, Marines van der, “Dempsey” born in Leiden, 13-01-1909, to Franciscus van der Lubben and Petronella, born van Handel and had one sister, Johanna Maria, died 26-08-1904, in Leiden, after only 2 weeks living, and one brother Johannes Marcus, who died 13-05-1940, age 32, in Tilburg, Marinus on the left of mother Petronella. and also one half sister Johanna  Peute, died 21-02-1945, age 50, in Leiden, and three half brothers,, Petrus Peute, died 24-01-1962, age 65, in Alkmaar,, N. Peute, died 2-11-1962, age 59, in Halsteren, lived only one day on 09-07-1899, in Dongen, and Franciscus Peute, who died 28-11-1962, age 59, in Halsteren, North Brabant, Netherlands. Marinus with learning difficulties and apparently had a fascination with fire. His parents were divorced and, after his mother died when he was 12, he went to live with his half-sister’s family Peute. In his youth Van der Lubbe worked as a bricklayer. He was nicknamed “Dempsey” after the boxer Jack Dempsey, Dempsey died age 87, on 31-05-1983,

  because of his great strength. He made many international walking trips. At his work, van der Lubbe came in contact with the labor movement; in 1925, he joined the Dutch Communist Party, and its youth section the Communist Youth Bund . In 1926, he was injured at work, getting lime in his eyes, which left him in the hospital for a few months and almost blinded him. The injury forced him to quit his work, so he was unemployed with a pension of only 7.44 guilders a week. Not being able to live off this, he was forced to take occasional jobs. After a few conflicts with his sister, van der Lubbe moved to Leiden in 1927. There he learned to speak some German and founded the Lenin house, where he organized political meetings. While working for the Tielmann factory a strike broke out. Van der Lubbe claimed to the management to be one of the ringleaders and offered to accept any punishment as long as no one else was victimized, even though he was clearly too inexperienced to have been seriously involved. During the trial, he tried to claim sole responsibility and was purportedly hostile to the idea of getting off free. Afterwards, van der Lubbe planned to emigrate to the Soviet Union, but he lacked the funds to do so. He was politically active among the unemployed workers’ movement until 1931, when he fell into disagreement with the CPH, Communistische Partij Holland and instead approached the Internationalist Communist Group. In 1933, van der Lubbe fled to Germany to take action in the local communist underground. He had a criminal record for arson. The communist party distanced itself from Van der Lubbe. They released the Braunbuch über Reichstagsbrand und Hitlerterror in July 1933 in which Van der Lubbe was accused of having been a lust boy of SA leader Ernst Röhm   who had been used by the Nazis to start the fire

Death and burial ground of Lubbe, Marines van der “Dempsey”.

According to the Berlin police, van der Lubbe claimed to have set the Reichstag building on fire as a cry to rally the German workers against fascist rule. The place where he allegedly entered the building.  Under torture, he confessed again  and was brought to trial along with the leaders of the opposition Communist Party. The presiding judge was Judge Dr. Wilhelm Bürger  of the Fourth Criminal Court of the Fourth Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court. “He was not a boy who kept his mouth. The historical image of that sack in the crib, which lowered the head, is not correct. ‘Marinus was a chatterbox, a Grossmaul. There was no strike if he climbed on a soap box. ” Something else has to happen. ‘ Was Van der Lubbe perhaps exaggerated, a half-blind, out of society deadly with political ambitions, someone who wanted to speak, and preferably as soon as possible? Did he therefore resign himself in the Reichstag? If you want to become famous with a big act, make sure it’s done. Van der Lubbe also thought that he was just over a few months in prison. At his trial the certainly drugged van der Lubbe was sentenced to death for the Reichstag fire. The other four defendants Ernst Torgler, died age 69, on 19-01-1963, Georgi Dimitrov, died age 67, on 02-07-1949, Blagoi Popov, died age 66 in 1968 and Vassili Tanev, at the trial were cleared.

Adolf Hitler (did you know), Hermann Goering (did you know) and Josef Goebbels (did you know) and Martin Bormann needed only one communist offender for their planes.

   He was guillotined in a Leipzig prison yard on 10-01-1934, three days before his 25^th birthday. When he was buried, his head was sewn on his body. He is buried on the Südfriedhof, South Cemetery, in Leipzig, Field 8, Row E, but the gravestone is removed a 75 feet and a grave of honor raised close by. He has still been in Section 8, now under the urn numbers 236-278.

At the Morspoort in Leiden there is a memorial to Marinus van der Lubbe. Between the Middelstegracht and the Uiterstegracht was a new building complex called him: the Van der Lubbehof. It is a stone’s throw from the address where he lived for a short while.

An article from the German newspaper Die Welt of July 26-07-2019 shows that earlier that month in the archive of the Hanover court a notarially recorded statement from SA employee Hans-Martin Lennings from 1955 was found, confirming that the fire was already was founded before he and Van der Lubbe arrived at the Reichstag, in which he further stated that he then protested in vain against the arrest of Van der Lubbe.

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