KAPP, WOLFGANG (1868- ), German conspirator, the
author or chief instrument of what is known as the Kapp coup
d'état (or Putsch) of March 13 1920, was born in New York
July 28 1868. He was the son of one of the leading German
Liberals of 1848, Friedrich Kapp, who, when the reaction
triumphed, had sought refuge in America and remained there
until the establishment of the German Empire by Bismarck in
1871. Friedrich wrote books which had a considerable vogue
on the history of German immigration into the United States
and on the question of slavery. He returned to Germany and
was a National Liberal member of the Reichstag until he
separated from Bismarck on the question of protection. His son
Wolfgang grew up under Bismarckian influences, and after an
ordinary official career became the founder of the Agricultural
Credit Institute in East Prussia, which achieved great success
in promoting the prosperity of landowners and farmers in that
province. He was consequently in close touch with the Junkers
of East Prussia, and during the World War made himself their
mouthpiece in an attack on the Imperial Chancellor Bethmann
Hollweg published in 1916 under the title of Die Nationalen
Kreise und der Reichskanzler. This pamphlet appeared about
the same time as the attacks of “Junius Alter” and evoked an
indignant reply from Bethmann Hollweg in the Reichstag, in
which he spoke of “loathsome abuse and slanders.” Kapp
continued his campaign against the Government, and was one
of the chief founders of the Vaterlandspartei under the auspices
of Tirpitz. For a brief period before the Revolution he was a
Conservative member of the Reichstag.
Nothing more was heard of him until on March 12 1920 the
Republican Government of the Reich suddenly issued an order for
his arrest. It turned out that he had organized, with Gen. von
Lüttwitz and other officers, a conspiracy to seize power in Berlin
and to occupy the Government offices. Noske, the Socialist
Minister of National Defence, had, with misplaced confidence, put Lüttwitz at the head of the troops which suppressed the Communist risings in Berlin. Lüttwitz, after delivering a kind of ultimatum to the Government, placed himself at the disposal
of Kapp, and led the troops, which consisted mainly of the
so-called “Baltikum” and other Free Corps, from the camp of
Döberitz near Berlin into the capital in the early morning of
March 13, where he occupied the Government buildings. Kapp
was installed in the Imperial Chancellery and issued proclamations
with his signature as “Chancellor of the Reich.” President
Ebert, Chancellor Bauer, and other members of the Ministry
fled in motor-cars first to Dresden and afterwards to Stuttgart, where a meeting of as many members of the Reichstag as could be assembled took place. Meanwhile Kapp tried to form a Government, with a number of desperate and in part criminal characters in the subordinate offices. Well-known Conservatives and former secretaries of state, who were invited to assume the more important offices, declined to associate themselves with him. He endeavoured to negotiate with ministers who remained in Berlin, particularly with Schiffer, Minister of Justice. The chief grievances which Kapp and his followers professed to have against the Government were (a) that the National Assembly, which had been elected as a Constituent Assembly, was prolonging its existence and acting as a permanent Reichstag; (b) that this Assembly was manifesting an inclination to revise the constitution in respect of the election of the President of the Republic so as to make the election lie with the Reichstag instead of with the electorate of the country. There was something in these complaints, and in the sequel the date of the general election for the first republican Reichstag was hastened and was fixed for the following June, while all attempts to change the method of election for the presidency of the republic were abandoned.