Background
Magnus von Levetzow was born on January 8, 1871 in Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany to a noble clan that had settled in Mecklenburg around 1300.
Magnus von Levetzow was born on January 8, 1871 in Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany to a noble clan that had settled in Mecklenburg around 1300.
Levetzow entered the navy in 1889 and attended the War Academy in 1900-1902.
In 1900 he served as Admiralty staff officer during the German blockade of Venezuela, and from 1906 to 1918 was attached to the High Sea Fleet in various capacities. From 1909 to 1912 Levetzow was first Admiralty officer in the fleet command; in 1912 he commanded the light cruiser Stralsund and the following year in the grade of captain the battle cruiser Moltke.
Captain von Levetzow led the Moltke to the coast of England on December 16, 1914, and bombarded Hartlepool. On January 24, 1915, he stood off the Dogger Bank as the British demolished the armored cruiser Blücher. One year later Levetzow joined the High Sea Fleet as chief of the Operations Division immediately under Captain Adolf von Trotha; Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer served as fleet commander. This triumvirate directed the fleet at Jutland on May 31/June 1, 1916, and inflicted serious material losses upon the British Grand Fleet, while twice facing annihilation by Sir John Jellicoe's dreadnoughts as the latter crossed Scheer's T.
In September 1917, Levetzow was temporarily appointed chief of staff to Vice Admiral Ehrhardt Schmidt's squadron for the conquest of the Baltic islands of Osel, Moon, and Dagö in the Gulf of Riga, which also netted the Russian battleship Slava. Levetzow received the order Pour le mérite in October 1917.
In November 1917, Levetzow returned to the High Sea Fleet, and by January 1918, was promoted commodore and given command of the Second Division, Scouting Forces, under Admiral Franz von Hipper. In August 1918, the restless Levetzow became chief of staff of the new Supreme Command of the navy under Admiral Scheer, and in this capacity actively planned the fatal Operations Plan Nr. 19, which called for a suicide sortie against the British Grand Fleet on October 30, 1918. The sailors of the fleet instead rebelled.
Levetzow was a highly political creature. A fanatical follower of Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, Levetzow had spared no effort to propagate the state secretary's views in the navy and beyond. Levetzow recruited members of the Court and of other ruling houses to uphold the Tirpitz line, and he used the same channels to drum up support for a fleet engagement as well as for unrestricted submarine warfare. With the wily Trotha, Levetzow worked diligently to undermine the positions of Georg A. von Müller of the Navy Cabinet, Henning von Holtzendorff of the Admiralty Staff, and Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg with the kaiser, the politicians, and the nation. Levetzow favored sweeping territorial annexations by Germany in Europe, Asia Minor, and Africa as late as September 1918, and he encouraged fellow naval officers to pursue these aims through Tirpitz's rightwing Fatherland party.
Levetzow survived the reduction of the German navy to 10,000 officers and men under the Versailles Treaty and in January 1920, was promoted rear admiral and given command of the Baltic Sea naval station at Kiel. In this capacity he supported the Kapp Putsch in March 1920 and was forced to resign from the service. For a time, Levetzow hoped to establish close contacts between the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II in Doom and Hermann Goring and Adolf Hitler of the NSDAP; however, by 1932 Levetzow accepted the kaiser's refusal to become embroiled with the Nazis and was elected an NSDAP member of parliament. Hitler rewarded the admiral, who had helped to bring naval support to the Nazis, by appointing him police president of Berlin on February 15, 1933; for the next two years Levetzow energetically purged the Ministry of the Interior of republicans. He withdrew from politics in July 1935 and died in Berlin on March 13, 1939.