Berlin Alexanderplatz
{{Short description|1929 novel by Alfred Döblin}}
{{other uses}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Berlin Alexanderplatz
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = Doeblin berlin alexanderplatz.jpg
| caption = Reproduction of the 1st edition cover
| author = Alfred Döblin
| illustrator =
| cover_artist = George Salter
| country = Germany
| language = German
| series =
| genre = Novel
| publisher = S. Fischer Verlag, Berlin
| release_date = 1929
| english_pub_date = 1931
| pages =
| isbn =
| oclc =
}}
Berlin Alexanderplatz ({{IPA|de|bɛʁˈliːn ʔalɛkˈsandɐˌplats|lang}}) is a 1929 novel by Alfred Döblin. It is considered one of the most important and innovative works of the Weimar Republic.{{Harvnb|Jelavich|2006|page=xii}}; {{Harvnb|Schoeller|2011|page=339}}; {{Harvnb|Sander|2001|page=9, 180}}; {{Harvnb|Bernhardt|2007|page=88–9}} In a 2002 poll of 100 noted writers, the book was named among the top 100 books of all time.[http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,711520,00.html The top 100 books of all time], Guardian Unlimited, May 8, 2002
Summary
The story concerns a murderer, Franz Biberkopf, fresh from prison. When his friend murders the prostitute on whom Biberkopf has been relying as an anchor, he realizes that he will be unable to extricate himself from the underworld into which he has sunk. He must deal with misery, lack of opportunities, crime and the imminent ascendency of Nazism. During his struggle to survive against all odds, life rewards him with an unsuspected surprise, but his happiness does not last as the story continues.
Focus and narrative technique
The novel is set in the working-class district near Alexanderplatz in 1920s Berlin. Although its narrative style is sometimes compared to that of James Joyce's, critics such as Walter Benjamin have drawn a distinction between Ulysses’ interior monologue and Berlin Alexanderplatz's use of montage.{{cite book|last=Benjamin|first=Walter|title=Selected Writings, vol. 2|year=1999|publisher=Belknap|location=Cambridge, MA|page=301|editor=Michael Jennings |editor2=Howard Eiland |editor3=Gary Smith}}{{cite journal|last=Fore|first=Devin|title=Döblin's Epic: Sense, Document, and the Verbal World Picture|journal=New German Critique|year=2006|volume=33|issue=3|pages=189|doi=10.1215/0094033x-2006-015}} Oliver Kamm, writing in the London Times, says Döblin's methods are more akin to Kafka in his use of "erlebte Rede (roughly, experienced speech — a blending of first-person and third-person narrative)".{{cite news|last=Kamm|first=Oliver|url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/article/review-berlin-alexanderplatz-by-alfred-doeblin-love-and-death-in-old-berlin-dgr2dxwn9|title=Review: Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin — love and death in old Berlin|work=The Times|location=London|date=24 February 2018|access-date=24 February 2018}} {{subscription required}} The novel is told from multiple points of view, and uses sound effects, newspaper articles, songs, speeches, and other books to propel the plot.
Translations
The novel was translated into English in 1931 by Eugene Jolas, a friend of James Joyce.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2008/01/17/the-genius-of-berlin/|title=The Genius of Berlin|last=Buruma|first=Ion|date=17 January 2008|publisher=The New York Review of Books|access-date=7 October 2017}} The translation was not well received; it particularly was criticised for the way in which it rendered everyday working-class speech.{{cite book|last=Köpke|first=Wulf|title=The Critical Reception of Alfred Döblin's Major Novels|year=2003|publisher=Camden House}} A 2018 English translation by Michael Hofmann, published by New York Review Books,{{cite magazine |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/10/25/berlin-alexanderplatz-explosion-pure-fact/ |title=An Explosion of Pure Fact |magazine=New York Review of Books |author=Adam Thirlwell |author-link=Adam Thirlwell |date=25 October 2018 |access-date=11 October 2018}} was given a starred review from Kirkus Reviews, which called it "vigorous and fresh" and a "welcome refurbishing of a masterpiece of literary modernism".[https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/alfred-doblin/berlin-alexanderplatz/ Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin, Michael Hofmann], Kirkus Reviews According to Oliver Kamm, "Dialogue is the most difficult thing to get right in translation" which Hofmann has rendered "in cockney dialect. It reads fluently, even at the risk of being possibly obscure to a non-British audience".
Film adaptations
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H0724-501-02, Berlin, Straßenbahnhaltestelle Alexanderstraße.jpg in 1928]]
The novel has been adapted three times for film. In 1931 Berlin-Alexanderplatz was directed by Piel Jutzi. Döblin worked on the adaptation, along with Karlheinz Martin and Hans Wilhelm. The film starred Heinrich George, Maria Bard, Margarete Schlegel, Bernhard Minetti, Gerhard Bienert, Albert Florath and Paul Westermeier.
The second adaptation, Berlin Alexanderplatz, was directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Produced for and shown on German television in 1980 as a 14-part miniseries, it also has been shown theatrically. It runs for 15 hours (NTSC and film releases expand the runtime by a half hour). Upon its release in New York City, ticket holders were required to come to the theatre for three consecutive nights to see the entire film.
Both films were released in November 2007 by the Criterion Collection in the US in a multi-disc DVD. A Region 2 edition of the Fassbinder version was released in the UK by Second Sight in October that year.
Burhan Qurbani directed the most recent film adaptation, Berlin Alexanderplatz, which premiered at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival in 2020. Qurbani's version recontextualised the lead role of Franz as Francis, an Afro-German refugee from Guinea-Bissau.
See also
- List of fiction set in Berlin
- Museum of Modern Literature, where the original manuscript is held
- Best German Novels of the Twentieth Century
References
{{Reflist}}
=Bibliography=
{{refbegin}}
- {{cite book|last=Bernhardt|first=Oliver|title=Alfred Döblin|year=2007|publisher=Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag|location=Munich|isbn=978-3-423-31086-4|language=de}}
- {{cite book|last=Jelavich|first=Peter|title=Berlin Alexanderplatz: Radio, Film, and the Death of Weimar Culture|url=https://archive.org/details/berlinalexanderp0000jela|url-access=registration|year=2006|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=978-0-520-25997-3}}
- {{cite book|last=Sander|first=Gabriele|title=Alfred Döblin|year=2001|publisher=Reclam|location=Stuttgart|isbn=3-15-017632-8|language=de}}
- {{cite book|last=Schoeller|first=Wilfried F.|title=Alfred Döblin: Eine Biographie|year=2011|publisher=Carl Hanser|location=Munich|isbn=978-3-446-23769-8|language=de}}
{{refend}}
Further reading
{{refbegin|}}
- Dollenmayer, David B. The Berlin Novels of Alfred Döblin: Wadzek's Battle with the Steam Turbine, Berlin Alexanderplatz, Men Without Mercy, and November 1918. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988. Print.
- {{cite journal|last=Dollenmayer|first=David B.|date=May 1980|title=An Urban Montage and its Significance in Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz|journal=The German Quarterly|volume=53|issue=3|pages=317–336|doi=10.2307/404909|jstor=404909 }}
- {{cite book|title=Hystericizing Germany. Fassbinder, Alexanderplatz|last=Hermes|first=Manfred|publisher=Sternberg Press|year=2014|isbn=978-3-9567-9004-1|location=Berlin}}
- {{cite book|title=Berlin Alexanderplatz: Radio, Film, and the Death of Weimar Culture|last=Jelavich|first=Peter|publisher=University of California Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-520-25997-3|location=Berkeley}}
- {{cite journal|last=Ryan|first=Judith|date=November 1981|title=From Futurism to 'Döblinism'|journal=The German Quarterly|volume=54|issue=4|pages=415–426|doi=10.2307/405005|jstor=405005 }}
- Slugan, Mario. 2017. Montage as Perceptual Experience: Berlin Alexanderplatz from Döblin to Fassbinder. Rochester: Boydell & Brewer. {{refend}}
External links
- [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015005271922&seq=9 Full text of {{lang|de|Berlin Alexanderplatz}}] {{in lang|de}} at HathiTrust Digital Library
{{Alfred Döblin}}
{{portal bar|Novels}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:1929 German-language novels
Category:Novels by Alfred Döblin
Category:Novels about German prostitution
Category:Novels set in the 1920s
Category:German novels adapted into films
Category:German novels adapted into television shows
Category:Works about criminals