Editing Kapp Putsch (section)

===Run-up to the coup===
[[Image:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1989-0718-501, Gustav Noske und Walter Lüttwitz.jpg|thumb|upright|Walther von Lüttwitz (centre) and Gustav Noske (right), c. 1920]]
Although the Putsch has been named after [[Wolfgang Kapp]], a 62-year-old nationalist [[East Prussia]]n civil servant, who had been planning a coup against the republic for a while, it was instigated by the military; Kapp played a supporting role.<ref name="Haffner"/>{{rp|217}}<ref name="Reich">{{cite book |last=Dederke |first=Karlheinz |title=Reich und Republik, Deutschland 1917–1933 |language=de |publisher=Klett-Cotta |year=1996 |isbn=3-608-91802-7}}</ref>{{rp|50}} On 29 February 1920, the Defence Minister Noske ordered the disbandment of two of the most powerful ''Freikorps'', the {{lang|de|Marinebrigade Loewenfeld}} and {{lang|de|[[Marinebrigade Ehrhardt]]}}. The latter numbered from 5,000 to 6,000 men and had been stationed at the ''Truppenübungsplatz [[Dallgow-Döberitz|Döberitz]]'', near Berlin, since January 1920.<ref name="Haffner"/>{{rp|217}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Brigade Ehrhardt, 1919/20 |language=de |date=25 March 2001 |work=Historisches Lexikon Bayerns |url=http://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/artikel/artikel_44457}}</ref> An elite force, it had been created from former Imperial Navy officers and NCOs, boosted later by {{lang|de|Baltikumer}} (those who had fought the Bolsheviks in [[Latvia]] in 1919). During the civil war in 1919, the brigade had seen action in Munich and Berlin. It was extremely opposed to the democratic government of Friedrich Ebert.<ref name="Haffner"/>{{rp|217}}

Its commander, ''Korvettenkapitän'' [[Hermann Ehrhardt]], declared that the unit would refuse its dissolution.<ref name="Reich"/>{{rp|51}} On 1 March, it staged a parade without inviting Noske.<ref name="Haffner"/>{{rp|218}} General [[Walther von Lüttwitz]], in command of all the regular troops in and around Berlin (''Gruppenkommando I''), the highest ranking general in the army at the time and in command of many ''Freikorps'', said at the parade that he would "not accept" the loss of such an important unit. Several of Lüttwitz's officers were horrified at this open rejection of the government's authority and tried to mediate, by setting up a meeting between Lüttwitz and the leaders of the two major right-wing parties. Lüttwitz listened to and remembered their ideas but was not dissuaded from his course of action.<ref name="Haffner"/>{{rp|218}} Noske then removed the ''Marinebrigade'' from Lüttwitz's command and assigned it to the leadership of the Navy, hoping that they would disband the unit. Lüttwitz ignored the order but agreed to a meeting with President Ebert, suggested by his staff.

[[Image:Wolfgang Kapp.jpeg|thumb|left|upright|Wolfgang Kapp, the leader of the Putsch]]
In the evening of 10 March, Lüttwitz came with his staff to Ebert's office. Ebert had also asked Noske to attend. Lüttwitz, drawing on demands by the right-wing parties and adding his own, now demanded the immediate dissolution of the National Assembly, new elections for the Reichstag, the appointment of technocrats (''Fachminister'') as Secretaries for Foreign Affairs, Economic Affairs and Finance, the dismissal of General Reinhardt, appointment of himself as supreme commander of the regular army and the revocation of the orders of dissolution for the ''Marinebrigaden''. Ebert and Noske rejected these demands and Noske told Lüttwitz that he expected his resignation the next day.<ref name="Haffner"/>{{rp|219}}

Lüttwitz went to Döberitz on 11 March and asked Ehrhardt whether he would be able to occupy Berlin that evening. Ehrhardt said he needed another day but in the morning of 13 March he could be in the centre of Berlin with his men. Lüttwitz gave the order and Ehrhardt began the preparations. It was only at this point that Lüttwitz brought the group known as ''Nationale Vereinigung'' into the plot. These included [[German National People's Party]] (DNVP) member Wolfgang Kapp, retired general [[Erich Ludendorff]], [[Waldemar Pabst]] (who had been behind the murder of [[Karl Liebknecht]] and [[Rosa Luxemburg]] in January 1919), and {{Interlanguage link multi|Traugott von Jagow|de}}, the last Berlin head of police in the old Reich.<ref name="BPB"/>{{rp|25}}<ref name="Haffner"/>{{rp|219}}<ref name="Reich"/>{{rp|50–51}} Their goal was to establish an authoritarian regime (though not a monarchy) with a return to the federal structure of the Empire.<ref name=her>{{cite journal |title=Review: Der Kapp-Lüttwitz-Ludendorff-Putsch. Dokumente by Erwin Könnemann, Gerhard Schulz |author=Rainer Hering |journal=German Studies Review |language=de |volume=28 |number=2 |year=2005 |pages=431–432}}</ref> Lüttwitz asked them to be ready to take over the government on 13 March. The group was unprepared but agreed to the schedule set by Lüttwitz. One factor making them support quick action was that sympathetic members of the ''[[Sicherheitspolizei]]'' in Berlin informed them that warrants for their arrest had been issued that day.<ref name="Haffner"/>{{rp|219–220}}

Lüttwitz was not dismissed but suspended from his post on 11 March.<ref name="Reich"/>{{rp|51}} To defend the government, Noske ordered two regiments of ''Sicherheitspolizei'' and one regular regiment to take position in the government quarter but doubted that a Putsch was imminent.<ref name="Haffner"/>{{rp|220}} The regimental commanders decided not to follow orders to shoot, a decision that received the approval of ''Chef des [[Truppenamt]]s'' General [[Hans von Seeckt]].<ref name="Haffner"/>{{rp|220}}