Although the putsch has been named after Wolfgang Kapp, a 62-year-old nationalist East Prussian civil servant, who had been planning a coup against the republic for a while, it was instigated by the military; Kapp played a supporting role. On 29 February 1920, the Defence Minister Noske ordered the disbandment of two of the most powerful "Freikorps", the and . The latter numbered from 5,000–6,000 men and had been stationed at the "Truppenübungsplatz Döberitz", near Berlin, since January 1920. An elite force, it had been created from former Imperial Navy officers and NCOs, boosted later by (those who had fought the Bolsheviks in Latvia in 1919). During the civil war in 1919, the brigade had seen action in Munich and Berlin. It was extremely opposed to the democratic government of Friedrich Ebert.