Hohenlohe Princess arrested for aiding Putsch leader

July 16, 1923

Princess Margarete of Hohenlohe-Oehringen was arrested today at her Munich home by the State Attorney General's office at Leipzig, the New York Times reports. The 29-year-old princess, "a noted beauty and reactionary," has been charged with "having given asylum" to the Kappist General Walther von Luttwitz, a fervent monarchist, and to Captain Hermann Ehrhardt. The princess is also believed to have helped Ehrhardt escape from prison.
The Kapp Putsch took place in March 1920. Wolfgang Kapp was a right-wing journalist who did opposed Friedrich Ebert, the Treaty of Versailles and the Weimar Republic. On March 13, 1920, Luttwitz seized Berlin and announced a new right wing government headed by Kapp. Although Kapp had the support of several of Germany's generals, the majority of the army did not follow with support. The military sided with Ebert, and this support, combined with a general strike called by Ebert, led to the putsch's collapse after only five days. The Putsch's supporters would soon be seen as members of a fledgling political party in Germany: the Nazi Party.
It is believed that Ehrhardt's wife also played a role in his escape from the jail and out of Germany. Police are now looking for her. They are also investigating the privileges she had at the Leipzig jail, where her husband was held. She may have furnished her husband "with duplicates of the jail keys."
Ehrhardt's escape "has led to a revival of civil war talk" in Germany
Princess Margarete "committed perjury" when she denied knowing Ehrhardt. She withdrew her statement "when confronted with proof to the contrary." She was arrested to prevent her from fleeing the country.
The Princess was born in 1899 at Sommerberg, the Hohenlohe family estate. She is the daughter of the late Prince Maximilian of Hohenlohe-Oehringen and Countess Helene von Hatzfeldt. The Princess has two older brothers, Prince Max, and Prince Waldemar.
(On July 24, she was convicted of perjury and "abetting the flight" of Hermann Ehrhardt. She was sentenced to six months in prison. After his divorce, Ehrhardt married the princess in August 1927.)