The Weimar Republic and the failed Kapp-Putsch

Abstract

"The Weimar RepuЫic and the Failed Kapp-Putsch" is an attempt to write down оncе again the sequence of events which shattered Gennany in March 1920. lt was the author's intention to provide а partial background to а more broad study of the inner political crisis in the first years of the Weimar republic's existence. Тhе resulting workpiece is far from the ambltion to bе exhaustive. Nevertheless it covers not just the military coup itself but also its prehistory as well as the range of immediate and long-term consequences. The policy of the Bauer cablnet in search of equilibrium in the middle between the revolutionary Left and the reactionary Right, the ambiguous role that the Reichswehr played in the events, the rise of the free trade unions as а political force are what the emphasis is laid on. The analysis is based on а variety of sources including protocols of cablnet meetings, memoranda worked out bу the administration on specific problems, contemporary newspaper publications, propaganda material, etc. It also makes use of some earlier historical researches dealing with various aspects of the Kapp-Luettwitz putsch and the general political strike.