Wolfgang Kapp - The Kapp Putsch

The Kapp Putsch

"We will not govern according to any theory", Wolfgang Kapp, 13 March 1920

In March 1920 Hermann Ehrhardt, the leader of the Freikorps known as the Ehrhardt Brigade, was authorized by General Walther von Lüttwitz (Commander of Reichswehr Command Group I) to proceed and use the Marine Brigade to take Berlin from the Weimar Government. The Weimar government fled to Dresden and then onto Stuttgart in order to avoid arrest from rebel Reichswehr troops.

Though proclaiming a new government and state administration, Kapp along with Lüttwitz, failed to calculate the lack of support with such a coup. The majority of the old establishment, civil service, labour unions and general populace did not side with the putschists and as a result the newly proclaimed state lasted for a mere two days before a General Strike was called by the SPD. The Reichswehr, under the command of Hans von Seeckt, failed to uphold their constitutional commitment by defending the Republican government against the rebellious Freikorps units. The Weimar regime was saved by the public through the implementation of the strike, but the Putsch did not succeed for various other reasons. These include the lack of outward and active support shown by the military elite, judiciary and civil service who reluctant to commit to the Putsch from the very onset of Kapp-Lüttwitz project.

When the Coup d'état failed, Kapp fled to Sweden. After two years in exile, he returned to Germany in April 1922 to justify himself in a trial at the Reichsgericht. He died in custody in Leipzig shortly afterwards of cancer.