Prior to the Reichstag vote for the Enabling Act under which Hitler gained the "temporary" dictatorial powers with which he went on to permanently dismantle the Weimar Republic, Hitler promised the Reichstag on 23 March 1933, that he would not interfere with the rights of the churches. However, with power secured in Germany, Hitler quickly broke this promise.[3][4] He divided the Lutheran Church (Germany's main Protestant denomination) and instigated a brutal persecution of the Jehovah's Witnesses.[5] He dishonoured a Concordat signed with the Vatican and permitted a persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany.[5][6] The long term plan was to "de-Christianise Germany after the final victory".