The Reichstag fire occurred on 27 February 1933 when a Dutch communist immigrant named Marinus van der Lubbe allegedly set fire to the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany to protest the condition of the German working class. Firemen struggled to extinguish the fire, and Chancellor Adolf Hitler had Van der Lubbe arrested and executed. Hitler took this opportunity to suspend civil liberties in Germany and entrench the Nazi Party's control of the government, persecuting communists in the country and establishing a one-party state. Some people believe that the fire was a false flag operation by the Nazis which had the goal of giving them the opportunity to seize power.