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• Herman Ehrhardt

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• Herman Ehrhardt

Herman Ehrhardt was born in Germany in 1881. During the First World War Ehrhardt was a commander in the German Navy. A strong opponent of the Treaty of Versailles, Ehrhardt developed extreme right-wing views after the war.

In March 1920, Ehrhardt led a group of Freikorps soldiers to take control of Berlin. Wolfgang Kapp accepted Ehrhardt's offer to form a new government. However the Kapp Putsch failed to win support from the German Army and was brought to an end when the trade unions in Berlin called a general strike.

Ehrhardt fled from Germany but later returned to form the Viking League, an auxiliary police in Bavaria under Gustav von Kahr. Adolf Hitler saw Ehrhardt as a potential rival and refused to invite him to join the Beer Hall Putsch in November, 1923.

Ehrhardt was one of those listed to die during the Roehm Purge but he managed to escape to Austria. Herman Ehrhardt died in 1971.