Editing Kapp Putsch (section)

==Aftermath==
[[Image:Bahnhof Wetter01 crop.jpg|thumb|Memorial for the suppression of the Kapp putsch, railway station of [[Wetter (Ruhr)|Wetter]]. The sign reads: "For peace, freedom and democracy&nbsp;— in memory of the suppression of the Kapp putsch in March 1920"]]

===Weimar politics===
In 2009, Layton wrote, "At first sight the collapse of the Kapp ''Putsch'' could be viewed as a major success for the Weimar Republic. In the six days of crisis, it had retained the backing of the people of Berlin and had effectively withstood a major threat from the extreme right."<ref name=gl>{{cite book |author=Geoff Layton |title=Democracy and dictatorship in Germany 1919–1963 |year=2009 |publisher=Hodder Education}}{{page number|date=March 2022}}</ref>{{page number|date=March 2022}} Among the grievances which Kapp and his followers had against the government were that the National Assembly, which had been elected to serve temporarily, was beginning to act as a permanent Reichstag and that it seemed this assembly might revise the constitution with respect to the election of the president of the Republic, which would make the Reichstag, rather than the electorate, responsible for the presidential election. As a consequence of the political crisis that the putsch caused, the date of the general election for the first republican Reichstag was brought forward to 6 June. All attempts to change the method of election for the presidency of the Republic were abandoned.<ref name="eb"/> In the [[German federal election, 1920|Reichstag elections of 6 June]], the number of votes cast for the SPD and the Democratic Party fell by more than half compared to the January 1919 elections, while the right-wing German National People's Party (DNVP) (some of whose voters eventually switched to the Nazis) and the left-wing USPD gained substantially. The Weimar Coalition lost its majority in parliament and would never regain it.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mommsen |first=Hans |title=The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy |publisher=The University of North Carolina Press |year=1989 |location=Chapel Hill & London |pages=86–87 |translator-last=Forster |translator-first=Elborg |translator-last2=Jones |translator-first2=Larry Eugene}}</ref>
===Ruhr uprising===
{{Main|Ruhr uprising}}
The effects of the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch throughout Germany were more lasting than in Berlin. In some parts of the country, the strike turned into an armed revolt. The violence came from local military commanders who supported the new government and arrested pickets, which the workers resisted. In [[Thuringia]] and [[Province of Saxony|Saxony]] the military defeated the workers after bloody fights.<ref name="Haffner" />{{rp|228–229}} In the [[Ruhr]], the workers continued their protests after the Putsch in Berlin had collapsed. In the [[Ruhr uprising]], the [[Red Ruhr Army]] of about 50,000 workers went on the offensive with the goal of overthrowing the Weimar Republic and replacing it with a soviet-style council republic.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Scriba |first=Arnulf |date=1 September 2014 |title=Die Märzkämpfe 1919 |trans-title=The March Battles 1919 |url=https://www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/weimarer-republik/revolution-191819/maerzkaempfe-1919.html |access-date=28 August 2024 |website=Deutsches Historisches Museum |language=de}}</ref> On {{awrap|17 March}} it took Dortmund, on 18 March [[Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia|Hamm]] and [[Bochum]] and on 19 March [[Essen]], causing the local commander of the military district at [[Münster]] to order a withdrawal. By 22 March, the Ruhr was under the control of the revolutionary workers.<ref name="Haffner"/>{{rp|228–229}}

The legitimate government returned to Berlin on 20 March and demanded an end to the general strike. It offered some concessions to the unions, some of them made in bad faith.<ref name="Haffner"/>{{rp|232}} The unions ([[Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund|ADGB]], [[Allgemeiner freier Angestelltenbund|Afa-Bund]] and [[German Civil Service Federation|DBB]]) demanded the creation of a new government made up of SPD and USPD led by [[Carl Legien]], but only a new government based on the Weimar Coalition found a majority in the National Assembly. [[Hermann Müller (politician, born 1876)|Hermann Müller]] (SPD) replaced Bauer as chancellor.<ref name="BPB"/>{{rp|26}} The government then tried to negotiate with workers who refused to lay down their arms after the unions called off the strike on 22 March. When the negotiations failed, the revolt in the Ruhr was suppressed by Reichswehr and ''Freikorps'' units in early April 1920. Over 1,000 workers were killed, many in [[summary execution]]s, some committed by units that had been involved in the Putsch, including the ''Marinebrigade Loewenfeld''. Another 600 Reichswehr and Freikorps soldiers also lost their lives.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Winkler |first=Heinrich August |author-link=Heinrich August Winkler |title=Weimar 1918–1933. Die Geschichte der ersten deutschen Demokratie |title-link=Heinrich August Winkler |publisher=C.H. Beck |year=1993 |isbn=3-406-37646-0 |location=Munich |pages=133–134 |language=de |trans-title=Weimar 1918–1933. The History of the FIrst German Democracy}}</ref> As in 1918–1919, those on the left had cause to accuse the SPD and the Ebert government of siding with the enemies of the workers and of the republic.<ref name="Haffner"/>{{rp|229,233}}

===Putsch perpetrators===
The Putsch left a rump of military conspirators such as Pabst and Ehrhardt, who found refuge in Bavaria under the right-wing government of Gustav von Kahr (itself an indirect product of the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch) and there attempted to organize plots against the republican constitution and government of Germany. The crisis in the relations of Bavaria with the Reich (August–September 1921) which ended in Kahr's resignation was a further phase of the same trouble.<ref name="eb"/>

After the Putsch Noske named Kapp, Pabst and Ehrhardt as being responsible, despite the support from much higher up in the army.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Heinrich August |last1=Winkler |first2=Alexander |last2=Sager |title=Germany: The Long Road West |volume=1 |year=2006 |page=366}}</ref> Most of the participants were granted an amnesty and on 2 August 1920, the Reichstag passed a law that exculpated crimes committed during the Putsch and the subsequent Ruhr Uprising except those due to "cruelty" or "self-interest".<ref name="BPB"/>{{rp|27}} Of 705 cases brought against civilians, only the prosecution of von Jagow ended with a guilty verdict.<ref name="Reich"/>{{rp|54}} ''Freikorps'' and Reichswehr members were subject to military law and of 775 [[courts-martial]], 486 cases were closed. 48 officers were removed from their posts, six resigned, the others were subject to mild disciplinary actions. The ''Marinebrigade Ehrhardt'' was dissolved in May 1920 but most of its members were allowed to join the Reichswehr where they had successful careers.<ref name="Chronik"/> The courts were much harsher on the members of the Red Ruhr Army, many of whom were sentenced to lengthy terms of imprisonment.<ref name="BPB"/>{{rp|27}}

Kapp was arrested in Sweden on 16 April but not deported to Germany.<ref name="Chronik"/> He voluntarily returned to Germany in April 1922 and died the same year in prison while awaiting trial.<ref name="Chronik"/> Lüttwitz returned to Germany as part of an amnesty in 1924.<ref name="Lüttwitz">{{cite web |url=http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/biografien/LuettwitzWalther/index.html |title=Biografie Walther Freiherr von Lüttwitz |language=de |publisher=Deutsches Historisches Museum |access-date=12 July 2013}}</ref> Gustav Noske was forced to resign by the unions on 22 March, as a condition for ending the general strike and because some in the SPD thought that he had not been tough enough facing up to the putschists; [[Otto Gessler]] succeeded Noske as Defence Minister.<ref name="Gestalten">{{cite book |editor-last=Herzfeld |editor-first=Hans  |title=Geschichte in Gestalten:3:L-O |language=de |publisher=Fischer, Frankfurt |year=1963 |pages=231–232 }}</ref><ref name=DHM>{{cite web |url=http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/biografien/NoskeGustav/index.html |title=Biografie Gustav Noske |language=de |publisher=Deutsches Historisches Museum |access-date=12 June 2013}}</ref> General Reinhardt also resigned out of protest at Noske's dismissal. General Seeckt became his successor as ''Chef der Heeresleitung''.<ref name="Reich"/>{{rp|54}}

Former Ottoman grand vizier [[Talat Pasha]], the main perpetrator of the [[Armenian genocide]], was hiding in Berlin after the war and appeared at the press conference to criticize the putschists for dilettantism.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ihrig|first=Stefan|author-link=Stefan Ihrig|date=2016|title=Justifying Genocide: Germany and the Armenians from Bismarck to Hitler|title-link=Justifying Genocide|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|isbn=978-0-674-50479-0|page=227}}</ref>

===Monument to the March Dead===
{{Main|Monument to the March Dead}}
[[Image:Monument to the March dead.jpg|thumb|Monument to the March Dead, by [[Walter Gropius]]]]
Between 1920 and 1922 a monument in honour of the workers who were killed in the wake of the Kapp Putsch was erected in the [[Historical Cemetery, Weimar|Weimar central cemetery]]. The memorial was commissioned by the Weimar [[:de:Gewerkschaftskartell|Gewerkschaftskartell]] (Union Cartel), which conducted a competition to select a design. It was built according to plans submitted by the architectural office of [[Walter Gropius]]. Although Gropius had said that the [[Bauhaus]] should remain politically neutral, he agreed to participate in the competition of Weimar artists at the end of 1920.<ref name="lupfer"/>

The monument was arranged around an inner space, in which visitors could stand. The repeatedly fractured and highly angular memorial rose up on three sides, as if thrust up from or rammed into the earth.<ref name="lupfer">Gilbert Lupfer & Paul Sigel, [https://books.google.com/books?id=1p2jMjQlbOEC&dq=march+putsch+gropius&pg=PA31 ''Walter Gropius, 1883–1969: the promoter of a new form'', p. 31].</ref>

The monument was destroyed by the [[Nazi Party|Nazis]] in February 1936. They objected to it politically and considered it an example of "[[degenerate art]]", as Hitler characterized modern works.<ref name="RLW">{{cite web|last1=Wolfe|first1=Ross Lawrence|title=Walter Gropius, Monument to the March Dead (1922)|url=https://thecharnelhouse.org/2015/05/07/walter-gropius-monument-to-the-march-dead-1922/|website=The Charnel-House|access-date=24 November 2017|date=8 May 2015}}</ref>