Eugen Leviné

{{Short description|German communist revolutionary (1883–1919)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Eugen Leviné |image = Eugen Leviné circa 1919 Crop.jpg |image_size = |caption = Leviné {{circa}} 1919 |order = Leader of the Bavarian Soviet Republic |term_start = 12 April 1919 |term_end = 3 May 1919 |predecessor = Ernst Toller |successor = ''Office abolished'' |birth_date = 10 May 1883 |birth_place = St Petersburg, Russian Empire |death_date = 5 June 1919 (aged 36) |death_place = Stadelheim Prison, Munich, Bavaria, Germany |constituency = |party = Communist Party of Germany |spouse = Rosa Broido |children = Eugen Leviné |profession = |signature = |footnotes = }} '''Eugen Leviné''' ({{langx|ru|Евгений Левине|Yevgeny Levine}}; 10 May 1883 – 5 June 1919), also known as '''Dr. Eugen Leviné''',<ref name=Ablovatski> {{cite book | first = Eliza | last = Ablovatski | title = Revolution and Political Violence in Central Europe: The Deluge of 1919 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=x1ctEAAAQBAJ | pages = ix, 65 (sent), 92 (Rilke), 132 ("Dr."), 135 ("interloper") | date = 2021 | isbn = 978-0521768306 | access-date = 16 January 2022}}</ref> was a German communist revolutionary and one of the leaders of the short-lived Second Bavarian Soviet Republic.<ref name=Bronner> {{cite book |last=Bronner |first=Stephen Eric |title=Modernism at the Barricades: Aesthetics, Politics, Utopia |year=2012 |publisher=Columbia University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HeVMWQLC99MC |pages=121, 131–133 (bio), 134 (influence) |location=New York |isbn=978-023-115-822-0}}</ref>

==Background== Eugen Leviné was born on 10 May 1883 in St. Petersburg to affluent<ref name="Löwy"> {{cite book | first = Michael | last = Löwy | author-link = Michael Löwy | title= Redemption and Utopia: Jewish Libertarian Thought in Central Europe | publisher = Verso Books | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=7W7nDwAAQBAJ | date = 2017 | isbn = 978-1786630865 | access-date = 16 January 2022}}</ref> Jewish merchants, Julius and Rozalia (née Goldberg) Leviné.<ref name=Bronner/> Julius Leviné died when Eugen was three years old, and Rozalia emigrated to Germany with her son, settling in Wiesbaden and Mannheim. Eugen went on to study law at the Heidelberg University.{{cn|date=January 2022}} While a student there, he remained in touch with Russia.<ref name="Löwy"/>

==Career== thumb|left|Leviné, undated ===1905 revolution=== Leviné returned to Russia to participate in the failed revolution of 1905 against the Tsar. For his actions, he was exiled to Siberia. He eventually escaped to Germany and began studying at Heidelberg University and married in 1915. For a short time, he served in the Imperial German Army during the First World War.{{cn|date=January 2022}}

===1919 Bavarian Soviet Republic=== [[File:Map-WR-Bavaria.svg|thumb|right|Leviné helped establish and lead the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic (territory in red vs. Weimar Republic in beige)]] After the war ended, Leviné joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), which, under Paul Levi, who sent first Max Levien in December 1918 and then Leviné, first to Upper Silesia to quell an uprising<ref name=Harman> {{cite book | first1 = Chris | last1 = Harman | title = The Lost Revolution: Germany 1918 to 1923 | publisher = Haymarket Books | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=dyNeDgAAQBAJ | pages = 373–379 | date = 2017 | isbn = 978-1608463169 | access-date = 16 January 2022}}</ref> and then in March 1919 to Munich to organize the KPD locally and help to create a socialist republic in Bavaria.<ref name=Bronner/><ref name=Ehrlich> {{cite book |first=M. Avrum|last=Ehrlich |title=Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture |volume=2 |year=2008 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NoPZu79hqaEC&pg=PA1154 |page=847 |location=Santa Barbara, California |isbn=978-185-109-873-6}}</ref><ref name=Morris> {{cite book | first = Douglas G. | last = Morris | title = Justice Imperiled: The Anti-Nazi Lawyer Max Hirschberg in Weimar Germany | publisher = University of Michigan Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=cs_rXw0XfqwC | pages = 33–34, 41, 45–47, 53, 79, 302, 319 | date = 2005 | isbn = 978-0472114764 | access-date = 16 January 2022}}</ref><ref name=Ablovatski/> Neither Levien or Leviné had much revolutionary experience.<ref name=Mommsen> {{cite book | first1 = Wolfgang J. | last1 = Grundmann | first2 = Jurgen | last2 = Grundmann | title = Max Weber and His Contemporaries | publisher = Routledge | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DXTYAQAAQBAJ | pages = 373–379 | date =2013 | isbn = 978-1135032302 | access-date = 16 January 2022}}</ref>

The republic lasted only several weeks, replaced quickly by a Soviet-style republic after the assassination of Kurt Eisner, then leader of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD). The ruling government of the new republic lasted only six days, due to poor leadership under the German-Jewish playwright Ernst Toller.{{cn|date=January 2022}}

====Coup==== On 13 April 1919, a "Red Army," led by Leviné and without KPD orders or approval, won clashes with the Toller's soldiers, created a second soviet republic with Leviné at its head, who then received approval and support directly from Lenin.<ref name=Winkler> {{cite book |author1=Winkler, H. A. |author2=Sager, Alexander |name-list-style=amp |title=Germany: The Long Road West |year=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YlRZXtADx7MC |page=356 |isbn=978-019-926-597-8}}</ref><ref name=Mommsen/><ref name=Harman/>

Leviné attempted to expropriate luxurious flats to the homeless and seize factories and place them under workers control.<ref name=Bronner/> He introduced censorship and a "military-style" government, while also revamping education and declaring the Munich Frauenkirche a revolutionary temple.<ref name=Bronner/> These actions followed inquiries from Lenin as to whether Leviné had assumed control of banks and taken bourgeois hostages.<ref name=Winkler/>

On 27 April 1919, Leviné stepped down ("abdicated"<ref name=Grundmann> {{cite book | first = Siegfried | last = Grundmann | title = The Einstein Dossiers: Science and Politics – Einstein's Berlin Period with an Appendix on Einstein's FBI File | publisher = Springer Science & Business Media | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=1bxYPMHPhGcC | pages = 246 | date = 2006 | isbn = 978-3540311041 | access-date = 16 January 2022}}</ref>) as leader of the Soviet. As the German president Friedrich Ebert gave orders to subdue the Bavarian Soviet Republic and reinstate the Bavarian government under Johannes Hoffmann, the Red Guards executed eight hostages on 29 April 1919.<ref name=Bronner/>

====Countercoup, arrest, trial==== The German Army, assisted by Freikorps, with a force of roughly 39,000 men invaded and quickly re-conquered Munich on 3 May 1919.<ref name=Winkler/> Leviné personally took part in the street fighting against them.<ref name=Bronner/> In retaliation for the execution of the hostages, the Freikorps captured or killed some 700 men and women.{{cn|date=January 2022}} Leviné evaded arrest at first, perhaps by hiding in the apartment of Erich Katzenstein.<ref name=Morris/> Leviné was captured on 13 May 1919.<ref name=Grundmann/> Public interest in his trial was high.<ref name=Ablovatski/> On 19 May 1919, Albert Einstein sent a joint telegram asking the courts to delay Leviné's trial.<ref name=Grundmann/> Leviné was tried along with Toller in early June 1919; Max Hirschberg refused to serve as his legal counsel, but Anton Graf von Pestalozza accepted.<ref name=Morris/> On 3 June 1919, the courts, calling him a "foreign interloper in Bavaria",<ref name=Ablovatski/> sentenced Leviné to death by execution.<ref name=Grundmann/> Soldiers, bureaucrats, and members of the public passed by to see the so-called "blood-thirsty Robespierre" while he awaited execution, his wife later reported.<ref name=Ablovatski/>

====Speech==== Leviné gave the following speech during his trial:<ref name=Harman/><ref name=Ahasver> {{Cite book | first = Eugen | last = Leviné | author-link = Eugen Leviné | title = Ahasver, Rede vor Gericht, u. anderes | publisher = Verlag Junge Garde | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=bJYRGwAACAAJ | pages = 37 | date = 1919 | access-date = 16 January 2022}}</ref><ref name=Skizzen> {{Cite book | first = Eugen | last = Leviné | author-link = Eugen Leviné | title = Skizzen, Rede vor Gericht und Anderes | publisher = Verlag der Jugendinternationale | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=bJYRGwAACAAJ | pages = 56 | date = 1925 | access-date = 16 January 2022}}</ref><blockquote>We Communists are all dead men on leave. Of this I am fully aware. I do not know if you will extend my leave or whether I shall have to join Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. In any case I await your verdict with composure and inner serenity. For I know that, whatever your verdict, events cannot be stopped.<ref name=speech> {{Cite web | first = Eugen | last = Leviné | author-link = Eugen Leviné | title = The last words of Eugen Leviné | publisher = LibCom | url = https://libcom.org/history/last-words-eugen-leviné | date = 1919 | access-date = 16 January 2022}}</ref></blockquote>

===Aftermath=== In reaction to the two Bavarian socialist republics, whose leaders included many Jews, Bavaria, which was already conservative and anti-Semitic, became even more so.<ref name=Winkler/><ref name=Morris/> One of the people affected was Reiner Maria Rilke, who left Munich after soldiers ransacked his apartment.<ref name=Ablovatski/>

==Personal life and death== [[File:Stadelheim.jpg|thumb|right|Stadelheim Prison (c. 2006), site of Leviné's execution in 1919]] In 1915, Leviné married Rosa Broido (from the Polish town of Gródek), who married Ernst Meyer (1887–1930) and so became known as Meyer-Leviné, and then fled Germany when Hitler came to power and lived the rest of her life in London (1890–1979). The Levinés had at least one child, a son, whom they named Eugen.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/sep/15/obituaries.mainsection |title=Obituary: Eugene Leviné |last=Ivory |first=Philip |date=16 September 2005 |website=The Guardian |access-date=9 April 2024}}</ref>

Stephen Eric Bronner considers Leviné a follower of Rosa Luxemburg (for seeking "to provide a legacy for the next generation," knowing "the soviet was doomed") and characterized him as follows: <blockquote> He incarnated the best of the Bolshevik spirit. He was unyielding and dogmatic, but an honest intellectual and totally committed to the most radical utopian ideals of international revolution... [and] also exhibited exceptional bravery."<ref name=Bronner/> </blockquote> Leviné was executed, age 36, on 5 June (or 6<ref name=Grundmann/>), 1919, by firing squad in Stadelheim Prison.{{cn|date=January 2022}} Lawyer von Pestalozza arranged a Jewish funeral for the Marxist revolutionary.<ref name=Morris/>

==Works==

;Books by Eugen Leviné * ''Ahasver, Rede vor Gericht, u. anderes'' (''Wandering Jew, Speech in Court, and Others'') (1919)<ref name=Ahasver/> ** ''Skizzen, Rede vor Gericht und Anderes'' (''Sketches, Speech in Court, and Others'') (1925)<ref name=Skizzen/> * ''Stimmen der Völker zum Krieg'' (''Voices of the Nations on War'') (1925)<ref> {{Cite book | first = Eugen | last = Leviné | author-link = Eugen Leviné | title = Stimmen der Völker zum Krieg | publisher = Malik-Verlag | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=v4oAMwEACAAJ | pages = 92 | date = 1925 | access-date = 16 January 2022}}</ref><ref> {{Cite book | first = Eugen | last = Leviné | author-link = Eugen Leviné | title = Stimmen der Völker zum Krieg | publisher = Zentralantiquariat der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Hu-EAAAAIAAJ | date = 1981 | isbn = 978-3761081112 | access-date = 16 January 2022}}</ref><ref> {{Cite book | first = Eugen | last = Leviné | author-link = Eugen Leviné | title = Stimmen der Völker zum Krieg | publisher = Klotz | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=juF4ygAACAAJ | date = 1981 | isbn = 978-3880749153 | access-date = 16 January 2022}}</ref>

;Books by wife Rosa Meyer-Leviné * ''Aus der Münchener Rätezeit'' (1925)<ref> {{Cite book | first = Rosa | last = Meyer-Leviné | author-link = | title = Aus der Münchener Rätezeit | publisher = Vereinigung Internationaler Verlags-Anstalten | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Fw5BHQAACAAJ | pages = 76 | date = 1925 | access-date = 16 January 2022}}</ref> ** ''Sovetskaia respublika v Miunkhene'' (1926)<ref> {{Cite book | first = Rosa | last = Meyer-Leviné | author-link = | title = Sovetskaia respublika v Miunkhene | publisher = Gosizdat | location = Moscow | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=8fl-uAAACAAJ | pages = 110 | date = 1926 | access-date = 16 January 2022}}</ref> * ''Leviné: Leben und Tod eines Revolutionärs'' (1972)<ref> {{Cite book | first = Rosa | last = Meyer-Leviné | author-link = | title = Leviné: Leben und Tod eines Revolutionärs | publisher = Carl Hanser Verlag | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=NkjMzQEACAAJ | pages = 295 | date = 1972 | isbn = 978-0446116244 | access-date = 16 January 2022}}</ref> ** ''Leviné: The Life of a Revolutionary'' (1973)<ref> {{Cite book | first = Rosa | last = Meyer-Leviné | author-link = | title = Leviné: The Life of a Revolutionary | publisher = Saxon House | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Lwa8AAAAIAAJ | pages = 225 | date = 1973 | isbn = 978-0347000048 | access-date = 16 January 2022}}</ref> * ''Leviné, the Spartacist'' (1978)<ref> {{Cite book | first = Rosa | last = Meyer-Leviné | author-link = | title = Leviné, the Spartacist | publisher = Gordon & Cremonesi | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KjwJAQAAIAAJ | pages = 225 | date = 1978 | isbn = 978-0860330622 | access-date = 16 January 2022}}</ref> * ''Im Inneren Kreis: Erinnerungen Einer Kommunistin in Deutschland, 1920–1933'' (1979)<ref> {{Cite book | first = Rosa | last = Meyer-Leviné | author-link = | title = Im Inneren Kreis: Erinnerungen Einer Kommunistin in Deutschland, 1920–1933 | publisher = Kiepenheuer & Witsch | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=awxJAAAACAAJ | pages = 404 | date = 1979 | isbn = 978-0346201323 | access-date = 16 January 2022}}</ref>

;Near-contemporary books on Leviné * ''Eugen Leviné'' (1922)<ref> {{Cite book | first = Paul | last = Fröhlich | author-link = Paul Fröhlich | title = Eugen Leviné | publisher =Vereinigung internationaler Verlagsanstalten | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=C3QRnQEACAAJ | pages = 58 | date = 1922 | access-date = 16 January 2022}}</ref> * ''Evgeny Levine'' (1927)<ref> {{Cite book | first = Elena | last = Eikhengolts | author-link = | title = Evgeny Levine | publisher = TsK MOPR | url = | pages = | date = 1927 | access-date = }}</ref> * ''Broeder, ik kan de brief niet aannemen'' (undated)<ref> {{Cite book | first = H. Roland | last = Holst | author-link = Henriette Roland Holst | title = Broeder, ik kan de brief niet aannemen: voorafgegaan van een levensbeschrijving | publisher = Mourits en de Weerdt | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UklJHAAACAAJ | pages = | date = | access-date = 16 January 2022}}</ref>

==Influence== Max Hirshberg remembered Leviné as "far superior" to Levien "in learning and spiritual purpose" but believed both had committed blindly to the "correctness of Russian methods."<ref name=Morris/>

In 1948, American ex-Soviet agent and later anti-communist Whittaker Chambers cited Leviné as one of three men who inspired him to join the Communist Party USA during testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, quoted in his 1952 memoir: <blockquote>Then I said: "When I was a Communist, I had three heroes. One was a Russian. One was a Pole. One was a German Jew. "The German Jew was Eugen Levine. He was a Communist. During the Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919, Levine was the organizer of the Workers and Soldiers Soviets. When the Bavarian Soviet Republic was crushed, Levine was captured and courtmartialed. The court-martial told him: 'You are under sentence of death.' Levine answered: 'We Communists are always under sentence of death.'"<ref> {{Cite book | first = Whittaker | last = Chambers | author-link = Whittaker Chambers | title = Witness | publisher = Random House | year = 1952 | location = New York | pages = 6 | doi = | id = | lccn = 52005149 }}</ref></blockquote>In 2017, Michael Löwy placed Leviné in a group of Jewish libertarians including Hans Köhn, Rudolph Kayser, and Erich Unger, as well as Toller and Manes Sperber.<ref name="Löwy"/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{Commons category-inline|Eugen Levine}} * [https://libcom.org/files/The%20last%20words%20of%20Eugen%20Leviné.pdf Speech] * Images of Levine: ** [https://search.iisg.amsterdam/Record/635846 A. Hoerle poster "Leviné"] (undated) ** [https://search.iisg.amsterdam/Record/634428 Half-tone photo of Leviné] (undated) ** [https://search.iisg.amsterdam/Record/634444 Portrait of Leviné] (1929.06.10) ** [https://search.iisg.amsterdam/Record/634452 Photo of Leviné ("erschossen")] (1919)

** [https://search.iisg.amsterdam/Record/634466 Half-tone photo of Leviné] (1920.06) {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levine, Eugen}} Category:1883 births Category:1919 deaths Category:People from Wiesbaden Category:20th-century Russian Jews Category:Bavarian Soviet Republic Category:Communist Party of Germany politicians Category:Executed communists Category:Executed German revolutionaries Category:Executed heads of state Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Germany Category:Independent Social Democratic Party politicians Category:Jewish German politicians Category:Jewish socialists Category:People executed by the Weimar Republic Category:People executed by Germany by firing squad Category:People of the Russian Revolution Category:Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Category:People executed for treason against Germany