The Kapp Putsch

admin Activities, Weimar Germany

The Kapp Putsch was an attempt by right wing members of the Freikorp to seize power. The Kapp Putsch was one of a series of uprisings in the early years of the Weimar Government. In this post there are a series of short reviews of and links to resources that are useful when teaching the Kapp Putsch.

Video about the Kapp Putsch

The Kapp Putsch is often given little space in a GCSE History textbook. For a good narrative of events and explanation of the context in which the Kapp Putsch occurred, try the Alpha History website.

To present the narrative alongside some activities you could make use of the slideshow below. Taken from Slideshare this presentation looks at both the Kapp Putsch and the Munich Putsch. Tasks are included within the presentation:

 

 

The Guardian host an online interactive lesson about the Kapp Putsch. Built into a broader scheme about the problems faced by the Weimar Republic this is a short but useful activity.
Alongside an online approach, such as the example above, teachers could use Andy Walker’s revision exercise. Andy uses information from one of our sister sites (with our permission) as the narrative and has a gap fill exercise attached to re-enforce knowledge.
Further Reading:
Swanmore – detailed account of the Kapp Putsch.
The Wikipedia entry for the Kapp Putsch is a lengthy and detailed account that includes some useful source material.
Ideas and Alternatives:
The Kapp Putsch was not just about one man. Consider looking at some of the other leaders of the coup, such as Walther von Lüttwitz and consider their role.
As mentioned in a previous post about the Spartacist Uprising there is a useful sorting activity that compares the two coups available here.