In the aftermath of World War I with its political and social turmoil, the regional churches lost their secular rulers. With revolutionary fervor in the air, the conservative church leaders had to contend with socialists (Social Democrats (SPD) and Independent Social Democrats (USPD)), who mostly held to disestablishmentarianism. When Adolph Hoffmann, a strident secularist, was appointed Prussian Minister of Education and Public Worship in November 1918 by the USPD, he attempted to implement a number of plans, which included: