Wolfgang+Kapp

Wolfgang Kapp was bor n New York in 1868.1 He returned to Germany with his family in 1870 and became a qualified doctor of law—he was then appointed as a Prussian civil servant—from 1886 to 1920. In 1917 he, along with several others, founded the Fatherland Party, a right-wing party in Germany.2 In 1918 he was elected to the Reichstag and was against Wilhelm II leaving. He stayed committed to setting up the monarchy again.

Leader of the Kapp putsch, he began collaborating for it in 1920 with Ehrhadt and Luttwitz. He was the chancellor of the putsch, but afterwards he had to flee to Sweden.3 He did return to Germany in 1922, but he died while coming back.

Kapp had been called “‘a neurotic with delusions’ or simply a ‘crank.’”4 He was a nationalist and a conservative and did little with the politics of Imperial Germany until the war. As he led the putsch many of his men were already wearing swastikas and joining the Nazis.5

1Wolfson and Laver 46 2Ibid 46 3Ibid 46 4Ibid 46 5Ibid 46

Wolfson, Robert, and Laver, John. “Years of Change: European History, 1890-1945.” London. 2001