The
Kapp Putsch took place in Weimar Germany in March 1920.
Wolfgang Kapp was a right-wing journalist who opposed all that he believed Friedrich Ebert stood for especially after what he believed was the humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles.
The Kapp Putsch was a direct threat to Weimar’s new government. Kapp was assisted by
General Luttwitz who lead a group of Freikorps men. On March 13th, 1920, Luttwitz seized Berlin and proclaimed that a new right of centre nationalist government was being established with Kapp as chancellor.
Ebert had no immediate response to this in the sense that he could not impose his will on the situation. For the second time, he had to leave his capital – once again undermining his status and to some emphasising his weak position within Germany. The government reconvened in Dresden and the only card Ebert could play was to call for a general strike to paralyse the movement of those who supported Kapp and Luttwitz.
Kapp received support from one of Germany’s foremost military officers – General Erich Luderndorff. But the main officer corps of the German Army failed to follow Luderndorff’s lead. It is possible that they felt some form of support for a president who had given them a free hand in dealing with the Communists/Spartacists in 1919. Certainly, Ebert could not have been seen as being anti-military. However, the military did nothing to stop the putsch and give active support to Ebert.
The general strike called for by Ebert ensured that those who supported Kapp could not move around and such paralysis doomed the putsch to failure. Kapp and Luttwitz fled Berlin on March 17th.
Why did the Kapp Putsch fail?
The coup was not well prepared, it was largely rejected by the entrepreneurs, the majority of the army remained politically neutral and the Berlin ministerial officials joined in the general strike
Backing the rebels were only among the big landowners, council officers and land east of the Elbe
The five days of the Kapp Putsch are of importance as they showed that:
The government could not enforce its authority even in its own capital The government could not put down a challenge to its authority Only the mass power of a general strike could re-establish Ebert’s authority.
Berliners simply wanted no more trouble in their capital after experiencing the Spartacists/Communist rebellion in 1919. Peace was more important than political beliefs.
Those who fought for Kapp and Luttwitz were obvious future supporters of the fledgling Nazi Party. Ironically, the Erhardt Brigade, one of Luttwitz’s main fighting force, put a sign on their helmets to identify who they were: the swastika.
Luttwitz army takes over Berlin
The coup is declared.
Kapp's Liitwitz Free Corps during the coup.
"There is a terrible misery and hunger in the city," wrote Einstein about the Kapp Putsch. "Infant mortality is horrendous ... The government is completely helpless, with the real powers fighting each other: the army, money and extremist socialist groups.
Article 160 of the Versailles Treaty, ordered the reduction of the German army to 100,000 professional soldiers and the dissolution of the existing volunteer Freikorps. This infuriated Kapp and he decided to seize power. Hence the Putsch.
The Stahlhelm was founded at the end of 1918 partly by Franz Seldte in the city of Magdeburg. Its journal, Stahlhelm, was edited by Count Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal, later hanged for his part in the July 20, 1944 plot to kill Hitler. The organization was a rallying point for nationalistic and anti-Weimar elements. With 500,000 members in 1930, the Stahlhelm was the largest paramilitary organization of Weimar Germany.
The Stahlhelm was the military backbone of the failed Kapp Putsch in 1920
In 1934 the Stahlhelm was renamed Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Frontkämpferbund (Federation of the National Socialist Frontline-Fighters) and integrated into the Sturmabteilung (SA) and, in 1935, it was dissolved by the Nazis, who feared its fundamentally monarchist character.
