Present-day Germans have a reputation, in Britain at least, for being law-abiding, solid, even stolid citizens who generally toe the line. Like most stereotypes, this caricature is hopelessly inaccurate. Anyone surprised by last week’s foiled “coup” ignores German history and the insurrectionary exploits of one Wolfgang Kapp.
Abetted by an aristocratic soldier, Gen Walther von Lüttwitz, he launched the so-called “Kapp putsch” in 1920 against the national government in Berlin. The aim was to overthrow the Weimar Republic that replaced the Second Reich at the end of the first world war – and so avenge the mythical “stab in the back”. His putsch flopped.
