The Posing of Threats by the Political Right to the Weimar Republic in the Years 1919-25

The Posing of Threats by the Political Right to the Weimar Republic in the Years 1919-25

During the years 1919 to 1925, the Weimar Republic was forced to face

threats from both the political right and left. However, the most

serious ones came from the right side which encompassed many different

parties and ideas. The moderate right was often prepared to work with

the Weimar government but often also opposed it. The extremists, on

the other hand, openly opposed the government.

In March 1920, the Weimar Republic was faced a direct threat - the

Kapp Putsch. Wolfgang Kapp was a right-wing journalist who opposed all

that he believedEbert stood for especially after what he believed was

the humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles. Kapp was assisted by

General Luttwitz who lead a group of Freikorps. They seized Berlin and

proclaimed that a new right of centre nationalist government was being

established with Kapp as chancellor. The army refused to support the

government. Ebert had no immediate response to this in the sense that

he could not impose his will on the situation. For the second time, he

had to leave his capital - once again undermining his status and to

some emphasising his weak position within Germany. Ebert then decided

to call a strike in order to paralyse the supporters of Kapp. This

caused the failure of the putsch as, due to a lack of support, Kapp

had to leave the government after only 5 days. However, this putsch

was very serious in that it showed that the government was unable to

enforce its authority even in its own capital and that it was also

unable to put down a challenge if not by calling a general strike.

However, the most important and serious threat that the Weimar had

faced was the lack of support from the army. With the army on his

side, Ebert knew that his government would not be overthrown. This

proved to be true 3 years later during the Munich Putsch.

The Munich Putsch took place in December 1923 in a Beer Hall.