Eugen Leviné

Eugen Leviné (; 10 May 1883 – 5 June 1919), also known as Dr. Eugen Leviné, was a German communist revolutionary and one of the leaders of the short-lived Second Bavarian Soviet Republic.

Background Eugen Leviné was born on 10 May 1883 in St. Petersburg to affluent Jewish merchants, Julius and Rozalia (née Goldberg) Leviné. and then in March 1919 to Munich to organize the KPD locally and help to create a socialist republic in Bavaria.

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.

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. ) 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. 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.

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.

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: 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."

Books by wife Rosa Meyer-Leviné Aus der Münchener Rätezeit (1925) Sovetskaia respublika v Miunkhene (1926) Leviné: Leben und Tod eines Revolutionärs (1972) Leviné: The Life of a Revolutionary (1973) Leviné, the Spartacist (1978) Im Inneren Kreis: Erinnerungen Einer Kommunistin in Deutschland, 1920–1933 (1979)

Near-contemporary books on Leviné Eugen Leviné (1922) Evgeny Levine (1927) Broeder, ik kan de brief niet aannemen (undated)

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." 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.