How the Spartacists and the Kapp Putsch threatened the new Republic

What does it tell you about a government if its enemies have to save it, and its own army will not? Twice, armed men tried to take Berlin, from the left in January nineteen nineteen and from the right in March nineteen twenty. The Republic survived both, saved first by ex-soldiers who hated it, then by workers who downed tools while its own army stood aside. Start with who was attacking, and from which side.

German politics after the war ran along a line from left to right, with the Republic in the middle. On the far left, communists wanted a workers' revolution like the one in Russia in nineteen seventeen. On the far right, nationalists wanted the Kaiser or a strong leader back, and the treaty torn up. Every course on this period names the two risings in this video, though some treat them as part of the wider opposition to the government. The first attack came from the left. The Spartacist League, led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, helped found the German Communist Party, the KPD, at the turn of the year. They believed Ebert's government had betrayed the workers by keeping the old officers, judges and factory owners in place. On the fifth of January, nineteen nineteen, they and their supporters seized newspaper offices and other buildings in Berlin and called for the government's overthrow. The rising was poorly planned, and most workers did not join it. Ebert and his defence minister, Gustav Noske, turned to the Freikorps, meaning free corps. These were bands of right-wing ex-soldiers, about two hundred and fifty thousand men by early nineteen nineteen. They hated communism, and they despised the Republic too. Within a week the Freikorps had crushed the rising. On the fifteenth of January, Luxemburg and Liebknecht were captured and murdered by Freikorps officers. In May the Freikorps also crushed a communist government that had taken over Bavaria. Now weigh up the help Ebert had accepted. Why was relying on the Freikorps dangerous for the Republic? Because they were enemies of the Republic as well. They fought the communists because they hated communism, not out of loyalty to Ebert, which meant their support could vanish the moment the government crossed them. So the Spartacist rising showed that the Republic could beat an attack from the left only with help from the right.

The government crossed them fourteen months later. The treaty limited the army to a hundred thousand men, so in March nineteen twenty the government ordered Freikorps units to disband. A putsch is an armed attempt to seize power. On the thirteenth of March, Wolfgang Kapp, a nationalist politician, and General Walther von Lüttwitz led the Ehrhardt Brigade, a Freikorps unit about five thousand strong, into Berlin. Ebert's ministers turned to the army to defend the capital, and it stood aside. Why do you think the army would not defend the government? Because its leaders would not fire on fellow soldiers, and the Freikorps were ex-soldiers like them. So the government fled, first to Dresden and then to Stuttgart, and Kapp declared himself head of a new government. From outside the capital the government called on workers to strike. A general strike, with workers in every industry stopping at once, shut Berlin down. Trams stood still, and there was no power and no water. Kapp could not govern a city that would not work. After four days he fled to Sweden, and the government came back. Afterwards, judges treated the right-wing rebels far more gently than left-wing ones, and most of Kapp's supporters were never punished. Right-wing groups went on to murder hundreds of opponents, among them Matthias Erzberger in nineteen twenty-one and the foreign minister Walther Rathenau in nineteen twenty-two. The Kapp Putsch showed that the Republic could not rely on its own army, and that the courts went soft on its enemies on the right.

Now set the two risings side by side, because they blur together so readily. Here are four facts. The first fact says the rising came from the left. The second says it was defeated by a general strike. The third says it happened in January nineteen nineteen. The fourth says Freikorps soldiers were the rebels. Which of those four facts belong to the Kapp Putsch? The second and the fourth. Kapp's rising came from the right, in March nineteen twenty, with the Freikorps as rebels, and a strike beat it. The Spartacists came from the left, in January nineteen nineteen, and the Freikorps crushed them. One examiner's report on a question about these years notes that details were confused, especially between the Spartacist Revolt and the Kapp Putsch. Students blended the two risings into one. The fix is to give each rising its own line: its side, its date, and what ended it. A second report, on a different paper, found that some students lacked knowledge of the names of the rebellions, and fewer answers used the two risings as political reasons for the difficulty to govern. Name and date both risings every time you use them, with a leader for each. Now a judgement. Which rising was the greater threat to the Republic? One option is the Spartacist rising. The other option is the Kapp Putsch. Pick one, then hold on to it before I reveal it. The Kapp Putsch has the stronger case. The Spartacists were poorly planned and lacked mass support. Kapp's men took the capital, the army refused to stop them, and the government had to flee Berlin, which is the evidence that tips it. That is the move one report praises in the best answers: the attempted coups showed the weakness of the government whose retention of control was dependent on the Freikorps or a general strike.

Put it all to work on a longer question. It asks why the Weimar Republic faced violent challenges from both the left and the right in nineteen nineteen and nineteen twenty, with two hints, the Spartacists and the Kapp Putsch. One reason per side works well, plus one about the government. Try planning your three reasons on paper before you hear mine. First, the left wanted a revolution like Russia's. The Spartacists believed Ebert's government had betrayed the workers by keeping the old army and judges. That meant they rejected the Republic as too moderate, and in January nineteen nineteen they tried to seize power in Berlin by force. Second, the right hated the Republic for the defeat and the treaty, and called its leaders the November criminals. When the government ordered Freikorps units to disband in nineteen twenty, because of the treaty's army limit, those soldiers faced losing everything. That gave them a direct reason to act, and Kapp marched on Berlin. Third, the Republic was too weak to stop the violence. It had to use the Freikorps against the Spartacists, and when the army refused to fire on Kapp's men it had to flee and rely on a strike. That showed extremists on both sides that force might work, which encouraged more violence, such as the murders of Erzberger and Rathenau.

Four questions to test both risings.

Which rising came from the left, when was it, and what crushed it?

The Spartacist rising, in January nineteen nineteen, crushed by the Freikorps.

Now the other one: what ended the Kapp Putsch, and why was that worrying?

A general strike ended it, after the army refused to defend the government. That was worrying because the Republic could not rely on its own soldiers.

Now a third: why did the left oppose the government, and why did the right?

The left felt the revolution had changed little, because the old officers, judges and owners kept their power. The right blamed the Republic for defeat and the treaty, so it saw the Republic as illegitimate, with no right to rule.

One more, about a rising this video never covered. In the spring of nineteen twenty, communist workers in the Ruhr formed their own Red Army, and government troops and Freikorps units crushed them.

What does that show about whom the Republic relied on?

The same pattern again. Against the left, the Republic leaned on right-wing soldiers, the kind of men who had just backed Kapp.

So back to that question. The Republic survived both attacks only because others chose to save it, the Freikorps against the left and the strikers against the right, while its own army stood aside. A government saved by its enemies and by a strike, and not by its own soldiers, is weak, and Germans could see it.

If you can keep the two risings apart, with their sides, their dates and their endings, hit the thumbs-up, got it. If that felt fast, that's normal, so save it and watch it again when you're ready.

Next in the chapter is The crisis of nineteen twenty-three: why the French occupied the Ruhr and how hyperinflation followed. Hopefully that's next in your feed, but if not, search for ScholaFly H, I, oh one, oh six.

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