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. 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. While a student there, he remained in touch with Russia. Career 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 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 and then in March 1918 to Munich to organize the KPD locally and help to create a socialist republic in Bavaria. Neither Levien or Leviné had much revolutionary experience. 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. 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") as leader of the Soviet. As the German president Friedrich Ebert gave orders to subdue the Bavarian Soviet Republic and reinstate the