Gunners at the Kapp Putsch in Berlin 1920

Gunners at the Kapp Putsch in Berlin 1920.

The photo shows gunners posing near Brandenburger Tor in Berlin during the Kapp Putsch in 1920 – an impressive symbol of the attempted overthrow of the Weimar Republic. The putschists, in their military uniforms, stand with a heavy cannon, emphasising their staging as embodied military power and authoritarian ambitions. This photograph captures the revanchist spirit of the time, in which former soldiers and Freikorps attempted to overthrow the young democracy by force.