Van der Lubbe of the Reichstag Fire was a perfect random nut. I'm reading a book by Hans Bernd Gisevius at the moment. He was a high police official in Germany during most of the Nazi period. Up to now, I've been inclined to the prevailing view that the fire was just the work of the random nut Van der Lubbe. But Gisevius makes some interesting points arguing for a conspiracy. Most strikingly, he points out that the evening of the Reichstag Fire, at the height of an electoral campaign, the Nazis' three chief orators, Hitler, Goebbels, and Göring, all just happened to be in Berlin and without any speaking engagements for the evening.