Blackwell Reference Online

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Attempted coup against the weimar republic in March 1920. This was led by Wolfgang Kapp, a right-wing German nationalist angered at the humiliation of the versailles treaty . He enjoyed considerable support among the 400,000 men belonging to the freikorps , paramilitary groups who had returned from the front and were unwilling to discard their uniforms. To reduce the German armed forces to the 100,000 men stipulated by Versailles, orders were issued in February 1920 for the disbanding of the so-called Ehrhardt Brigade, which President ebert had previously used to support his regime, though its antipathy to democracy was well known. General Lüttwitz, the brigade's monarchist commander, refused and ordered his men to occupy Berlin, which they did on March 13, pledging their support for a new government under Kapp. The coup collapsed within four days. It is sometimes said that the general strike, ordered by the social democratic party (SPD), was responsible for defeating the putsch. More important, though, was the refusal of the SPD-led cabinet of Gustav Bauer to liaise with the putschists and the failure of the ministerial bureaucracy to support their cause. Unconvinced that the SPD could provide proper defense against right-wing extremism, the communists set out in late March to reignite the german revolution of 1918–19. Their efforts were crushed by government troops, ... log in or subscribe to read full text