History (Four Days in Berlin)

Kapp's Revolution (1919 - 1920)
In early 1919 the strength of the Reichswehr the regular army, was estimated at 350,000. There were in addition more than 250,000 men enlisted in the various Freikorps. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Germanywas required to reduce its armed forces to a maximum of 100,000. Freikorps units were therefore expected to be disbanded.

In March 1920 orders were issued for the disbandment of the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt. Its leaders were determined to resist dissolution and appealed to General Walter von Luttwitz, commander of the Berlin Reichswehr, for support. Lüttwitz, an organiser of Freikorps units in the wake of World War I, and a fervent nationalist, responded by calling on President Friedrich Ebert and Defense Minister Gustav Noske to stop the whole programme of troop reductions. When Ebert refused, Luttwitz ordered the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt to march on Berlin. It occupied the capital on 13th March. Luttwitz, therefore, was the driving force behind the 1920 putsch, even though its nominal leader was Wolfgang Kapp, a 62-year-old East Prussian civil servant and fervent nationalist.

At this point Noske called upon the regular army to suppress the putsch. He encountered a blank refusal. The Chef der Heeresleitung General Hans von Seeckt, one of the Reichswehr's senior commanders, told him: "Reichswehr does not fire on Reichswehr." The government, forced to abandon Berlin, moved to Dresden, where they hoped to get support from Generalmajor Maercker. When they realized that Maercker did not want to take a clear stance they moved further to Stuttgart. Meanwhile, Kapp attempted to form a government. In the provinces, some Army commanders were sympathatic while virtually the entire naval officer corps came out in the support of the putsch. Admiral Adolf von Trotha, the Navy's commander came out in the support of the Kapp putsch as soon as he learned of it on March 13th, 1920. Well-known conservatives and former secretaries of state were also invited to assist in the new government, although Kapp's success here was less satisfactory than he anticipated.

Prior to the putsch's execution, Kapp and Luttwitz had approached a number of socialists and trade union leaders, offering some basic power-sharing terms in a post-revolutionary government, in exchange for their loyalty throughout the putsch. Overcoming vast ideological differences, many leftists accepted. The German government issued a proclamation calling on Germany's workers to defeat the putsch by means of a general strike, but, due to the aformentioned arrangements, this plea was largely ignored.

Freikorp units across Germany quickly joined the coup. By March 16, facing no explicit military opposition, they had seized all major cities. The German government was forced to flee into exile; Friedrich Ebert, accompanied by most of his cabinet, fled to Sweden. As on March 20th, Kapp himself issued a statement from Berlin:

"I, Wolfgang Kapp, formally assume my God-given duty as President of Germany, to rule over the peoples and territories of the Greater German Reich, to ensure the present and future stability of the Teutonic state, and to address the burdens forced against my nation by forces both international and domestic. My government represents Germans ruling for Germans. We recognize the right of this sacred land to pursue military interests, to oppose foreign treachery and meddling, and to guarantee an exceptional standard of living for every native German.

''Walter von Luttwitz shall promptly be appointed as Chancellor of Germany; Erich Ludendorff, as Deputy Chancellor. It is decreed that the existing Reichstag is invalid. Henceforth, it shall be disbanded, to be replaced by a new, fully representative legislature in the imminent future.''

God bless Germany."

Post-Revolutionary government (1920 - 1925)
Almost instantaneously, Kapp's coup attracted international condemnation. The strongest critics - France, Belgium and the United Kingdom - viewed the putsch as a threat to all formal arrangements made at the Treaty of Versailles; indeed, Kapp, Luttwitz and much of their government were explicitly anti-Versailles.