On 27 February 1933, the Reichstag builing was subject to an arson attack, and as a result, seen as the pivotal event in the establishment of Nazi Germany. At 21:25hrs (UTC +1), a Berlin fire station received an alarm call that the Reichstag building, the assembly location of the German Parliament, was ablaze. The fire started in the Session Chamber, and by the time the police and firefighters had arrived, the main Chamber of Deputies was engulfed by flames. Inside the building, a thorough search conducted by the police resulted in the finding of a shirtless Marinus van der Lubbe. Van der Lubbe was a Dutch insurrectionist, council communist and unemployed bricklayer who had recently arrived in Germany, ostensibly to carry out his political activities. The fire was utilized as evidence by the Nazis that the Communists were beginning a 'plot' against the German government. Van der Lubbe and four Communist leaders were consequently arrested. Adolf Hitler, who was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, four weeks before, on the 30 January, urged President Hindenburg to pass an emergency decree in order to counter the 'ruthless confrontation of the Communist Party of Germany'.