Berlin Alexanderplatz
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Editor’s note Alfred Döblin’s 1929 novel, subtitled The Story of Franz Biberkopf, follows a former transport worker released from Tegel prison after four years for killing his girlfriend. He swears to stay decent in the Berlin of the late Weimar years, but the city, the petty criminal Reinhold and his own temper keep pulling him down. Döblin cuts the story with newspaper items, advertisements, popular songs, weather reports and Bible passages, a montage technique new to the German novel. Rainer Werner Fassbinder turned it into a fourteen-part television series in 1980.
About the book
Berlin Alexanderplatz is a 1929 novel by Alfred Döblin. It is considered one of the most important and innovative works of the Weimar Republic. In a 2002 poll of 100 noted writers, the book was named among the top 100 books of all time.
Reader voices
The most-liked reviews on Hardcover (credited to their authors).
“Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz is a raw, unfiltered portrait of a city in crisis. The novel follows Franz Biberkopf, a small-time criminal navigating the turbulent waters of post-war Berlin. His story is a brutal, often humorous chronicle of survival, a stark reflection of a city in…”