High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Nero Decree (German: Nerobefehl) was issued by Adolf Hitler on March 19, 1945 ordering the destruction of German infrastructure to prevent their use by Allied forces as they penetrated deep within Germany. It was officially titled Demolitions on Reich Territory and has subsequently become known as the Nero Decree, after the Roman Emperor Nero, who was supposed to have engineered the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD.