As previously discussed, the Nazis made van der Lubbe a "stupid, drooling young man", however historian Ian Kershaw states that that he was "intelligent... unconnected with any political group" and that he wanted to "perform a solitary and spectacular act of protest against the Nazi government" (Kershaw, 1999). All of this goes against the discourse propagated by the Nazi party; they wanted the public to view van der Lubbe as a communist puppet too stupid to think for himself. The discrepancy between these two depictions of van der Lubbe has led historians to this day to believe that van der Lubbe was in fact mentally capable of this act, and the Nazis made him believe he was not. to link him more easily to the communists. Some historians use van der Lubbe's history with the Communist Party as a way to blame the Communists for the fire, but as van der Lubbe himself states: "I was a member of the Communist Party until 1929 » (Spartacus Educational, 2016), he also claimed he “acted alone” (Spartacus Educational, 2016). Some may say that he was only saying this to cover up for the communists, but he also said negative things about the party, such as how the "communist leaders dominate the workers" (Spartacus Educational, 2016), he did not would not have made such a speech. negatively towards the party if it had covered them. The likelihood that van der Lubbe acted alone is therefore quite firm, with all major points of contention such as his "stupidity of mind", the fact that he is a communist, the fact that he did not have time to lighting the fire, and so on, were all disproved, or at least they were found not to be guarantees. In response to this statement, "the burning of the Reichstag was a deliberate plot by Hitler's henchmen to help consolidate Nazi control over the political process", although Hitler gained control of the political process as a direct result of the