Chapter XXV
"As an English general has very truly said, the German Army was 'stabbed in the back'."
~ Erich Ludendorff
By early 1920 the militant German right were both emboldened and furious. It is arguable that in this environment something resembling the violence of the Kapp Putsch may have been inevitable but the extent of the emotion involved is somewhat called into question by how calculated the plot was.~ Erich Ludendorff
Even prior to German defeat many on the right had been prone to conspiracy theories and paranoia aimed at particular groups. Jews, Communists, Social Democrats, and Women were only a few of the groups held in particular disregard for being either responsible for defeat or failing to bring about victory. The potency of this poisonous rage was only increased by the speedy growth of the ‘Stab in the Back’ myth, a lie spread partially by those who had asked for the armistice that had led to the end of the war and now wished to exploit the defeat to their advantage. Pinning the defeat and the subsequent humiliation at the hands of the victorious powers on those who now formed the Weimar coalition was the instigator for action those who already despised the republic needed.
At the head of this large but disorganised revolutionary movement were members of the old establishment, defeated and deposed in the First World War and now convinced that it was not their fault and that in the wake of Germany’s humiliation at Versailles the nation called to them to lead once again and destroy the failed democratic experiment. The Social Democratic government they had propped up the year before was now the enemy.
The Weimar coalition wasn’t blind to these stirrings of rebellion but much preferred to look the other way than inquire as to the loyalty of certain radical officers. Though many of the leading culprits weren’t particularly secretive in their actions, there was a paranoia that any potential conspiracy went far deeper than those the government could see, there was a fear that the highest levels of the Reichswehr might turn on the government if any action as to be interpreted as unjust interference in their affairs.
Versailles would ultimately be the instigator that would force the confrontation between Weimar and the Reichswehr known popularly as the Kapp Putsch. The treaty had demanded a German armed forces of no more than one hundred thousand men and the numerous Freikorps militia were in contravention of this diktat. Having crushed the communists they were to be demobilised and disbanded.
The first major unit to face demobilisation was the 2nd Marine Brigade under the leadership of Captain Hermann Ehrhardt, whose namesake has often been ascribed to the group. Ehrhardt was representative of the disdain held for the republic within the Freikorps and was determined to the turn the attempted demobilisation into a conflict that would lead to its demise. The brigade’s six thousand men were to occupy Berlin and install a new provisional government, to be initially headed by Wolfgang Kapp, a Prussian civil servant with roots to the far-right DNVP, the German National People’s Party.
The paranoia of many in the Weimar coalition would soon be proven correct, for Erhardt and Kapp had successfully gained the tacit support of much of the German right and indeed the Reichswehr though this support manifested itself largely in inaction and calls for dialogue with Kapp’s new provisional government. Unlike Mussolini’s march on Rome the following Summer, the German right were never fully willing to throw their support behind the reactionary coup.
It was a mistake they would later seek to remedy.
~ Bridging the Horseshoe, David Irons
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As he heard the marching sounds outside Ernst couldn’t help but feel a queasy sense of déjà vu. Once again the government he served was being forced to flee the capital, barely more than a year since they had had to do so the last time. Back then it had been Communists who had set out to destroy the republic, people whose principles he could basically agree with despite total revulsion for their methods, now Germany faced a half-baked politician from East Prussia and a Freikorps colonel, a slightly comedic duo if they hadn’t had such support from those who helped to stop the Communists the last time.
The Freikorps outnumbered the Reichswehr and by all he had heard the Reichswehr were sympathetic to the aims of the coup, or at least willing to see how it played out. Most on the German right seemed to have a similar attitude. They were willing to see democracy die but were hesitant about dipping their hands in the blood only to end up accountable to those whose political power they had wished to take away. Kapp’s provisional government had promised that they were in fact the guardians of democracy, that they wished to prevent the Weimar coalition from becoming a dictatorship, he trusted them about as far as he could throw them. As he looked out at the street below he saw an armoured car drive by with a slogan hastily painted on.
“HANG THE NOVEMBER CRIMINALS”
These were now people who could be reasoned with and now they were outside his flat.
Ernst had already resolved that he would have no part in the farcical provisional government set up by the reactionaries ad to his relief it seemed that most of the civil service remaining in Berlin had agreed. He had been lurking in his flat ever since, hopeful that the coup wouldn’t extend to the outer suburbs just yet.
That had been until there was a knock on the door and a large man in grey walked in without being beckoned. At that point Ernst just wanted to go home, even before he addressed him personally,
“Ernst Muller?”
“Yes?”
“By the order of the provisional government I am here to take you in for questioning.”
Despite his militaristic attire, the figure in front of Ernst certainly wasn’t in the Reichswehr. The German military might have changed since the end of the war but they still didn’t tend to have skulls on their helmets. It wasn’t just his uniform that seemed unprofessional, his entire manner seemed somewhat distracted and even in the awkward silence the soldier briefly looked behind his back. Ernst decided that this was a man whom it wasn’t best to disagree with despite the man’s nervousness. If something was going wrong then that could only be a good thing, and it was never wise to argue with an armed man in a hurry.
Ernst stared out at the city as he put on his suit, he had insisted that he be dressed in a businesslike manner if he was going to be interrogated, nothing seemed particularly different from when he had walked out at the start of the putsch. The Freikorps he had seen had been in high spirits when there were smoke plumes rising above the city and gunshots in the air, now all was quiet and this man seemed far more nervous, as Ernst accompanied his new friend out of the flat he hoped that the man’s disposition reflected on the entire situation. Outside there was a requisitioned taxi waiting for him, Ernst would have been pleased enough not to travel in the armoured car, but this was yet another hint that the reactionaries where causing the sort of disorder they claimed to be fighting against.
Ernst had been in cars before though the experience was hardly routine, he expected it was the same for many of his captors, whose eyes would widen with every pothole although they seemed to be anxious about more than just the mode of transport. It wasn’t long before he was proven right, as they drove the soldiers around him remained silent but the signs were obvious as the city came closer. Having previously only noticed that there were no fires of conflict, he now realised that there was no smoke coming from the large chimney’s either, the workers were out in droves and the Freikorps had given up trying to control the crowds. Over and over again he saw the banners of several different organisations with one common slogan,
“GENERAL STRIKE!”
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The British General in question was actually asking Ludendorff if he thought Germany had been stabbed in the back but Erich wasn't going to let a little fact like that get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.
