[1] From 1907 to 1909 he did his military service and in 1912 he married Anna-Maria Bräuer,[1] the same year he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

[2] Grylewicz took part in the technical preparations in Moscow for the abortive 1923 uprising[3] and was tried alongside Arkadi Maslow but was granted an amnesty.

[1] Grylewicz was a founder member of the Leninbund and became the leading figure of its Trotskyist minority, eventually fusing with other groups to form the United Left Opposition of the KPD.

[1] When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the SA destroyed Grylewicz's home and private library and he fled to Czechoslovakia, first living in Reichenberg, then Prague.

[1] He moved to France the same year where he was detained at the outbreak of World War II before receiving a visa from Cuba in 1941.