A Berlin fire station was called, and by the time the police and firefighters had arrived, most of the building was covered in flames. Inside the building, Marinus van der Lubbe was found. He was a Dutch communist. The Nazis said it proved that communists were beginning a plot against the German government. Van der Lubbe and four Communist leaders were arrested shortly after that. Adolf Hitler, who had become Chancellor of Germany four weeks before, urged President Paul von Hindenburg to pass an emergency law to fight back "the confrontation of the Communist Party of Germany". 