After its takeover of power the Nazi Reich's government aimed at streamlining the Protestant regional church bodies, recognising the Faith Movement of the German Christians (, DC) as its means to do so (see Struggle of the Churches, ). On 4 and 5 April 1933 representatives of the "German Christians" convened in Berlin and demanded the dismissal of all members of the executive bodies of the then 28 Protestant regional church bodies in Germany, then rather loosely associated with each other in the Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchenbund (German Protestant Church Confederation). The "German Christians" demanded their ultimate merger into a uniform Protestant Reich Church, to be named German Protestant Church (), led according to the Nazi Führerprinzip by a Reich's Bishop (), abolishing all democratic participation of parishioners in presbyteries and synods. The "German Christians" announced the appointment of a Reich's Bishop for 31 October 1933, the highly symbolic Reformation Day public holiday.