In March 1920, right-wing nationalists led by Wolfgang Kapp attempted to overthrow the Weimar government in Berlin. (a) Describe the events of the Kapp Puts...

(a) Events of the Kapp Putsch of 1920 [4 marks]

On 13 March 1920, right-wing nationalist Wolfgang Kapp and General Walther von Luttwitz led a Freikorps brigade (the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt) into Berlin in an attempt to overthrow the democratic government. The regular army (Reichswehr) refused to intervene against the rebels; General Hans von Seeckt reportedly declared that "troops do not fire on troops," exposing the army's unreliability as a defender of democracy. President Friedrich Ebert and the legitimate government were forced to flee Berlin, relocating to Stuttgart. The putsch collapsed after four days when the trade unions called a general strike that paralysed Berlin, shutting down transport, utilities, and essential services, making it impossible for Kapp to govern.

(b) Why the Kapp Putsch failed [6 marks]

The general strike, called by Social Democrat and independent trade union leaders, was the decisive factor. It shut down transport networks, electricity, gas, and water supplies, demonstrating that Kapp could seize government buildings but could not actually run the country without the cooperation of organised workers. The civil service refused to cooperate with the rebel government, denying it administrative capacity. Kapp had no coherent political programme beyond overthrowing the Republic and could not articulate a vision that attracted broader support. The putsch was poorly planned and organised, with no coordination with potential supporters in other German cities. International recognition was not forthcoming, leaving the rebel government diplomatically isolated. The Reichswehr, while refusing to oppose the putsch, also refused to actively support it, leaving Kapp without reliable military backing.

(c) How far threats from the political right endangered the Weimar Republic in its early years [10 marks]

Right-wing threats were serious:

• The Kapp Putsch revealed that the army could not be relied upon to defend democracy; its refusal to act against right-wing rebels was a fundamental weakness.
• Right-wing political violence was widespread and deadly: Matthias Erzberger, who had signed the armistice, was assassinated in August 1921, and Walter Rathenau, the Foreign Minister, was assassinated in June 1922.
• The judiciary was notoriously lenient toward right-wing offenders; Hitler received only five years' imprisonment for the Beer Hall Putsch of November 1923 and served less than nine months.
• The "stab in the back" myth (Dolchstosslegende), which blamed civilians and politicians for Germany's defeat rather than the military, was widely believed on the right and delegitimised the Republic from its founding.

However, the right-wing threat had limits in this period:

• Both the Kapp Putsch and Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch failed, suggesting that right-wing extremists lacked sufficient popular support to seize power through force.
• The Republic survived all threats in its early years and achieved a period of stability from 1924 to 1929.
• Threats from the left, including the Spartacist Rising (January 1919) and communist uprisings in the Ruhr, Saxony, and Thuringia, were also significant and cannot be ignored.
• The right only succeeded in destroying the Republic after 1929, when the economic crisis of the Depression provided the mass support that earlier conspiracies had lacked.

Right-wing threats were serious and persistent throughout the Republic's early years, but the Republic was ultimately endangered more by its structural weaknesses (the army's disloyalty, a hostile judiciary, proportional representation) and by economic crises that amplified these vulnerabilities than by any single conspiracy or putsch.