Wolfgang Kapp

Wolfgang Kapp (July 24, 1858–June 12, 1922) was a Prussian civil servant and journalist. He was a strict nationalist, and a nominal leader of the so-called Kapp Putsch.

Early life

Kapp's father, Friedrich Kapp, was a political activist and later Reichstag delegate for the National Liberal Party. He fled to America after the failed revolutions of 1848, which is how Wolfgang Kapp came to be born in New York City: in 1870 the family returned to Germany, however, and Kapp's schooling continued in Berlin at the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium (High School). Wolfgang Kapp married Margarete Rosenow in 1884: the couple would have three children. Through his wife's family, Kapp acquired a family connection with politically conservative elements. In 1886 he graduated at the conclusion of his law studies at Tübingen and was appointed, in the same year, to a position in the Finance Ministry.

The Political Activist

Kapp was politically active during the First World War: in the early summer of 1916 he produced a secret pamphlet critical of German foreign and domestic policy under Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg. In 1917, along with Alfred von Tirpitz, he founded the "“Deutsche Vaterlandspartei”" (Fatherland Party), of which he would, briefly, become Chairman. The next year he was one of a number of prominent figures of the right, including General Ludendorff, who set up the "“Nationale Vereinigung”" (National Union), a right wing think tank which campaigned for a counter-revolution to install a form of conservative militaristic government: this was not, however, a movement for the restoration of the monarchy, the Kaiser having bowed to US pressure and left for his exile near Utrecht in early November. The next year, 1919, which saw the inauguration in Germany of the Weimar Republic, found Kapp a member of the "“Deutschnationale Volkspartei”" (National Peoples’ party).

Germany’s defeat in the First World War was seen by nationalists such as Kapp as a humiliation and a betrayal. He became an exponent of the Dolchstoß legend, and a vehement critic of the Versailles Settlement. In 1919 he was elected to the Reichstag as a monarchist.

The Kapp Putsch

In March 1920 Hermann Erhardt, the leader of the Freikorps known as the Ehrhardt Brigade, attempted to overthrow the government of the Weimar Republic by marching on Berlin, occupying the city, and installing his preferred Government by force. As a figurehead he chose Dr. Wolfgang Kapp, a German national, and nationalist, and politician of the extreme right, as Chancellor. [William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich] General Freiherr Walther von Luettwitz, who had command at that time of the troops in the Berlin area, supported the putsch with his own troops. [Wheeler-Bennett, Nemesis of Power] The regular army, under the command of General von Seeckt stood inactive, and only a general strike by the trade unions united restored the republican government

When the putsch (aka coup) failed, Kapp was forced to flee the country. He found a place of refuge in Sweden.

After two years in exile, he was allowed to return to Germany in April 1922. He died shortly afterwards, of cancer, in Leipzig.

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