Kapp Putsch

After Germany had lost the First World War (1914–1918), the German Revolution of 1918–1919 ended the monarchy. The German Empire was abolished and a democratic system, the Weimar Republic, was established in 1919 by the Weimar National Assembly. Right-wing nationalist and militarist circles opposed the new republic and promoted the stab-in-the-back myth, claiming that the war had been lost only because the efforts of the undefeated German military had been undermined by civilians at home. In 1919–1920, the government of Germany was formed by the Weimar Coalition, consisting of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), German Democratic Party (DDP, left-of-centre liberals), and Zentrum (Catholics). President Friedrich Ebert, Chancellor Gustav Bauer, and Defence Minister Gustav Noske were all members of the SPD. According to the constitution, the president was the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, represented in peace time by the Minister of Defence. The most senior officer of the land forces was called Chef der Heeresleitung, a post held in early 1920 by General Walther Reinhardt. Chancellor Bauer was obliged to sign the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, even though he disagreed with it. The treaty had been dictated by the victorious Allies of World War I; it forced Germany to assume responsibility for the war, reduced the area of Germany and imposed huge reparation payments and military restrictions on the nation. Freikorps units were expected to be disbanded. Since the reason for their creation—internal repression—had become obsolete with the crushing of the leftist uprisings, they were becoming a threat to the government. Some senior military commanders had started discussing the possibility of a coup as early as July 1919. ==Coup==

Run-up to the coup Although the Putsch has been named after Wolfgang Kapp, a 62-year-old nationalist East Prussian civil servant, who had been planning a coup against the republic for a while, it was instigated by the military; Kapp played a supporting role. On 29 February 1920, the Defence Minister Noske ordered the disbandment of two of the most powerful Freikorps, the and . The latter numbered from 5,000 to 6,000 men and had been stationed at the Truppenübungsplatz Döberitz, near Berlin, since January 1920. An elite force, it had been created from former Imperial Navy officers and NCOs, boosted later by (those who had fought the Bolsheviks in Latvia in 1919). During the civil war in 1919, the brigade had seen action in Munich and Berlin. It was extremely opposed to the democratic government of Friedrich Ebert. Lüttwitz asked them to be ready to take over the government on 13 March. The group was unprepared but agreed to the schedule set by Lüttwitz. One factor making them support quick action was that sympathetic members of the Sicherheitspolizei in Berlin informed them that warrants for their arrest had been issued that day. International con-man Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln became Kapp's press censor. Bloodshed in Harburg Since 1 January, Rudolf Berthold's Iron Troop Freikorps had been returning to Germany from fighting in Lithuania. Their eventual destination was Zossen, where they would disarm. By 13 March, they had gotten as far as Stade. There, they discovered the insurrection was in progress. Balked from boarding a train there by striking rail workers, Berthold had his men occupy the train station, city hall, telegraph office, and post office. He then bedded his troops for the night in the local girls' high school. The following day, the Iron Troop commandeered a train, which crept along unsafe tracks into Harburg, Hamburg. Before the Iron Troop's arrival, Independent Socialist city officials had quietly arrested the commanding officer of the local Reichswehr battalion, leaving the soldiers leaderless. Upon the train's arrival, the officials directed the Freikorps to the local middle school for shelter. On the following morning, 15 March 1920, a citizen militia began to coalesce around the school. At about noon, a Freikorps machine-gunner fired a burst over the gathering crowd to disperse them. A firefight ensued, with 13 civilian casualties. Three Iron Troop soldiers were also killed, and eight others captured and executed. With neither police nor Reichswehr troops to restrain the gathering militia, and little ammunition among his troops, Berthold realized he had to negotiate a surrender. He agreed to let his unarmed men exit the school at 6:00 pm upon assurance the militia would not harm them. During this surrender, an enraged crowd of onlookers mobbed the Iron Troop, and Berthold was murdered. The disarmed Iron Troop was taken to a nearby military base. Reactions There was no military resistance to the Putsch; the regular troops in Berlin, Sicherheitspolizei, navy, the army commands of East-Prussia, Pomerania, Brandenburg and Silesia, formally accepted the new minister of defence and Reichskanzler. Admiral Adolf von Trotha, the navy commander, came out in support of the coup as soon as he learned of it. In Bavaria, the Social Democratic state government resigned after refusing to install an emergency regime as demanded by Reichswehr General Arnold von Möhl, Georg Escherich and Gustav Ritter von Kahr. The Bavarian Parliament then elected Kahr, a right-wing politician associated with the Bavarian People's Party, as Minister President of Bavaria. In the rest of the Reich, the commanders of the Wehrkreise (military districts) did not declare for or against Kapp but were not neutral and most sympathised more or less openly with the putschists. Adolf Hitler, who had been in contact with the members of the Nationale Vereinigung and was eager to help the coup along, was flown into Berlin from Munich by the Army. The pilot was Robert von Greim, whom Hitler later appointed as the last commander of the Luftwaffe. He was met by striking workers at an airfield outside of Berlin, where he landed by mistake, and had to disguise himself. Eventually Hitler was able to continue his flight together with Dietrich Eckart to Berlin, where they immediately went to the Reichskanzlei to meet Wolfgang Kapp. Hitler and Eckart were approached by Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln, who told them that Kapp had fled and the coup failed. Collapse With the country paralyzed, Kapp and Lüttwitz were unable to govern; in Berlin, communication between military units was by courier only. The rank and file of the bureaucracy were on strike, and there were no newspapers. Proclamations asking the workers to return to their jobs, promises of new elections and even the threat of capital punishment for strikers remained without results and the Putsch collapsed on four days after it had begun. Kapp had put Vice-Chancellor Schiffer and the members of the Prussian state government into protective custody on 13 March but they were released the next day and on 15 March, negotiations began. Representatives of the democratic right, Oskar Hergt and Gustav Stresemann also participated. The four big centre-right parties (Democratic Party, Zentrum, German People's Party and German National People's Party) agreed that the main threat was now "bolshevism" and that they had to "win back" the officer corps. It was considered undesirable that Kapp and Lüttwitz should be toppled, they must be seen to resign voluntarily. The four parties, supported by some Social Democrats who had remained in Berlin, offered fresh elections, a cabinet reshuffle and an amnesty for all participants in the Putsch, if Kapp and Lüttwitz were to resign. The putschists offered only the resignation of Kapp, and Lüttwitz tried to hold on for another day as head of a military dictatorship but his commanders deserted him. They suggested to Schiffer, in the absence of Ebert in charge of the government's affairs, that he appoint Seeckt as head of the Reichswehr, which Schiffer did in the name of Ebert. When Lüttwitz offered his resignation on 18 March, Schiffer accepted—again in Ebert's name—while granting him full pension rights. Schiffer also suggested Pabst and Lüttwitz should leave the country, until the National Assembly had decided on the question of an amnesty and even offered them false passports and money. On 18 March, Seeckt praised the discipline of the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt and the next day provided Ehrhardt with a written promise that he would not be arrested as long as he was in command of the brigade and the brigade left Berlin. When they were heckled by an unfriendly crowd of bystanders, they opened fire with machine guns, leaving twelve civilians dead and thirty severely wounded. Kapp remained in the country and only fled to Sweden in April. Lüttwitz first went to Saxony and only later left for Hungary. Both men used passports provided by supporters in the police. Ehrhardt went into hiding in Bavaria. ==Aftermath==

. The sign reads: "For peace, freedom and democracy — in memory of the suppression of the Kapp putsch in March 1920" Weimar politics In 2009, Layton wrote, "At first sight the collapse of the Kapp Putsch could be viewed as a major success for the Weimar Republic. In the six days of crisis, it had retained the backing of the people of Berlin and had effectively withstood a major threat from the extreme right." Among the grievances which Kapp and his followers had against the government were that the National Assembly, which had been elected to serve temporarily, was beginning to act as a permanent Reichstag and that it seemed this assembly might revise the constitution with respect to the election of the president of the Republic, which would make the Reichstag, rather than the electorate, responsible for the presidential election. As a consequence of the political crisis that the putsch caused, the date of the general election for the first republican Reichstag was brought forward to 6 June. All attempts to change the method of election for the presidency of the Republic were abandoned. Ruhr uprising The effects of the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch throughout Germany were more lasting than in Berlin. In some parts of the country, the strike turned into an armed revolt. The violence came from local military commanders who supported the new government and arrested pickets, which the workers resisted. In Thuringia and Saxony the military defeated the workers after bloody fights. On it took Dortmund, on 18 March Hamm and Bochum and on 19 March Essen, causing the local commander of the military district at Münster to order a withdrawal. By 22 March, the Ruhr was under the control of the revolutionary workers. As in 1918–1919, those on the left had cause to accuse the SPD and the Ebert government of siding with the enemies of the workers and of the republic. Most of the participants were granted an amnesty and on 2 August 1920, the Reichstag passed a law that exculpated crimes committed during the Putsch and the subsequent Ruhr Uprising except those due to "cruelty" or "self-interest". Gustav Noske was forced to resign by the unions on 22 March, as a condition for ending the general strike and because some in the SPD thought that he had not been tough enough facing up to the putschists; Otto Gessler succeeded Noske as Defence Minister. General Reinhardt also resigned out of protest at Noske's dismissal. General Seeckt became his successor as Chef der Heeresleitung. Monument to the March Dead Between 1920 and 1922 a monument in honour of the workers who were killed in the wake of the Kapp Putsch was erected in the Weimar central cemetery. The memorial was commissioned by the Weimar Gewerkschaftskartell (Union Cartel), which conducted a competition to select a design. It was built according to plans submitted by the architectural office of Walter Gropius. Although Gropius had said that the Bauhaus should remain politically neutral, he agreed to participate in the competition of Weimar artists at the end of 1920. The monument was destroyed by the Nazis in February 1936. They objected to it politically and considered it an example of "degenerate art", as Hitler characterized modern works. ==See also==