Brief History
Although a real person, Marinus made his first comic debut in the pages of Red Skull: Incarnate. There he is seen protesting against the Nazi regime. Fun fact is that he was in hearing range of the young Johann Schmidt and his friend Dieter. Johann would later on become Red Skull, something Marinus would have disliked more then anything. Both in comics and in real history Marinus is the prime suspect for setting fire to the Reichstag in 1933. His actions had mayor consequences since the Nazi’s used Marinus’ act of aggression for propaganda against the enemies of the Nazi Party.
Marinus was sentenced to death in 1934. In recent years, there has been some debate about whether Marinus really was the one whom set the fire, or that he was just used as a scapegoat for the Nazis.