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.
1919 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 Leviné attempted to expropriate luxurious flats to the homeless and seize factories and place them under workers control. He introduced censorship and a "military-style" government, while also revamping education and declaring the
Munich Frauenkirche a revolutionary temple. These actions followed inquiries from Lenin as to whether Leviné had assumed control of banks and taken bourgeois hostages. On 27 April 1919, Leviné stepped down ("abdicated" {{cite book
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. Leviné personally took part in the street fighting against them. In retaliation for the execution of the hostages, the Freikorps captured or killed some 700 men and women. Leviné evaded arrest at first, perhaps by hiding in the apartment of Erich Katzenstein. Leviné was captured on 13 May 1919. Public interest in his trial was high. On 19 May 1919,
Albert Einstein sent a joint telegram asking the courts to delay Leviné's trial. 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. On 3 June 1919, the courts, calling him a "foreign interloper in Bavaria", sentenced Leviné to death by execution. 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.
Speech Leviné gave the following speech during his trial: {{Cite book {{Cite book {{Cite web
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. One of the people affected was
Reiner Maria Rilke, who left Munich after soldiers ransacked his apartment. ==Personal life and death==