Of the novel «Berlin Alexanderplatz» the German writer and psychiatrist Alfred Doblin was published in 1929 and is one of his most famous works. The novel is typical of the literary epoch New Objectivity. The action takes place in Berlin at the beginning of the 20th century.
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Summary of contents Berlin Alexanderplatz
The first book
Franz Biberkopf is released from prison after four years in prison. Out of jealousy he killed his then girlfriend Ida and is now trying to build a new life in Berlin. The colourful, noisy city confuses Franz, because he misses the regulated order of the prison.
He wanders through the city without a clue and has an inspiring conversation with two Jewish men. After watching a love story in the cinema, he lustfully visits a prostitute and realizes that he now has erectile dysfunction. Frustrated, he returns to the scene of his violent act.
In Ida’s apartment he meets her sister Minna and rapes her. He then visits the two Jewish men and thanks them for their support; he ignores their warnings about the «tricks of fate».
The second book
Franz now has a new girlfriend named Lina and, looking for an honest job, starts selling newspapers with right-wing content on the street. For this he wears a bandage with a swastika and almost gets into a bar fight with a communist.
The Third Book
Franz is now involved haberdashery and no longer sells newspapers.
haberdashery are small items used for sewing.
He meets Lina’s uncle, Otto Lüders, and tells him in confidence that a widow paid him for sex and that he left his goods with her. Otto takes advantage of the information: he drives home to the widow, threatens her and steals the goods. Franz recognizes his uncle’s fraud and anxiously sells his possessions. In a hurry, he flees into the hustle and bustle of the big city to hide. Lina is unsuccessful in her search for him.
The Fourth Book
After that, Biberkopf found new accommodation, but his life kept getting out of joint: he didn’t work and he drank large amounts of alcohol. The two Jewish men who had given him valuable advice some time ago cannot help him either.
Franz is only roused from his idleness when he accidentally observes a burglary in a company one night. His caretaker is soon arrested as an accomplice in the burglary, prompting Franz to leave his room. Confused, he wants to visit Minna at her house and abuse her again, but her husband won’t let him in.
The Fifth Book
In the fifth book, too, Biberkopf tries to assert himself as an honest citizen: he sells newspapers again and strikes up a new friendship with a shy-looking man.
But his supposedly harmless friend Reinhold is extremely criminal. It comes as it must: Reinhold draws Franz into his misdeeds. Biberkopf soon takes part in Reinhold’s raids and also regularly sleeps with his female acquaintances. On the hasty flight after a crime, he even loses an arm when Reinhold pushes him out of the car and ends up on the street.
The sixth book
Reinhold assumes that Franz is dead. But he is operated on in a clinic on his arm; the expensive treatment is taken over by an old acquaintance named Herbert, whom Franz knows from his time in prison. Together with his girlfriend Eva, Herbert also takes care of him after his release.
Despite his good will, Biberkopf once again got off the wrong track after his recovery and began working as a pimp. While working, he falls in love with a woman named Mieze. Reinhold, to whom Franz has contacted again, learns of Franz’s happiness in love.
The seventh book
The situation gets out of hand when Mieze visits Reinhold to ask him to put Franz Biberkopf back on the right track. Reinhold loses his temper with anger and murders Mieze in passion.
The Eighth Book
One of Reinhold’s accomplices reveals the hiding place of the corpse and everything finally escalates. Both Reinhold and Franz are suspected of murdering her and are soon caught.
The Ninth Book
After his arrest, Franz Biberkopf falls into a deep depression and is taken to a psychiatric ward. He is rarely present there and has to be force-fed. The situation now finally seems hopeless, but death appears to Franz in a half-awake, confused state and has a long, difficult and stressful conversation with him.
After two terrible nights and discussions, Franz can finally tearfully admit his guilt and be reborn as a new person. He finally wakes up healthy and a new person. Found innocent and released from the psychiatric ward, Franz Biberkopf returns to Berlin and works from now on as an assistant porter.
Figure 1: Course of action in «Berlin Alexanderplatz»
Main characters in Berlin Alexanderplatz
Franz Biberkopf
- tall man of massive build, around early 30s.
- he is a social misfit and has committed several serious crimes.
- he is not a typical heroic figure and does not pursue a bourgeois profession.
- Franz is intellectually restricted and described as naive.
- he sometimes has choleric attacks, especially when he consumes a lot of alcohol.
- his psyche changes drastically in the course of the novel.
- although Franz’s actions contrast with bourgeois society, he has conservative and misogynist attitudes.
- Franz feels very attracted to Reinhold (also in a romantic way) and initially underestimates him because of his naivety.
Reinhold
- Reinhold is a more sadistic criminal.
- he uses Franz’ masochistic tendencies and behaves unscrupulously in general and towards Franz in particular.
- he is very disciplined and strict with himself.
- only after Reinhold murdered Mieze did Franz distance himself from him.
masochism and sadism are two opposite terms. Masochists experience (often sexual) pleasure and satisfaction from being inflicted with pain. Sadists, on the other hand, like it very much others inflict pain or humiliation on people.
Figure 2: Figure constellation in «Berlin Alexanderplatz»
Language and Symbolism in Berlin Alexanderplatz
«Berlin Alexanderplatz» is a motley story with many intertextual references.
The novel is ironic, sarcastic and frequently in dialect written. the capital city and the Alexanderplatz are immensely important and sometimes address the protagonist Franz Biberkopf directly. Alexanderplatz stands for the great changes in society at the time Weimar Republic. Several (also biblical) symbolic figures appear.
The author Alfred Döblin layers the work as a literary one Assembly.
the assembly technology in literature can be traced back to collages in the visual arts. A new, multi-layered work of art is created here from a wide variety of elements that are attached to a substrate.
the inner one monologue of the protagonist mixes with the sounds of Alexanderplatz. The residents of Berlin are treated like a large crowd. With the help of Döblin’s artistic collage work, the huge city, the hustle and bustle and chaos meet the fate of an individual who is closely connected to the city.
Flashbacks and forwards mix in the novel. Thanks to its innovative narrative technique, Berlin Alexanderplatz appears exciting and tightly interwoven. Various text materials constantly interrupt the narrated action: newspaper clippings, radio broadcasts, children’s songs, slogans, quotes are found in a wild interplay with the inner monologue of the anti-hero Franz Biberkopf. This is how many are made intertextual References and the book develops a strong dynamic.
Intertextuality means the conversion and insertion of existing texts into a new text.
Biberkopf’s life becomes known to the reader through his inner monologue brought close. The worlds of thoughts and worries of other people are also revealed at a suitable point. The desperate Franz also constantly gets into mental discussions with voices in his head reminding him that he actually wanted to remain decent. Sometimes the capital seems to address Biberkopf directly, reminding him of the reality he must face:
«It means making up your mind, a path has to be taken – and you don’t know any, Franze. You don’t want that old crap and in the cell you just moaned and hid and didn’t think, didn’t think, Franze.»
The lively dialogues and discussions of the protagonists are often written in the Berlin dialect. The people in the book often speak very roughly and simply; the novel and its main characters are always ironic and sarcastic. The reader is often addressed directly and thus immediately drawn into what is happening.
Alexanderplatz, around which the main character’s story unfolds, symbolizes the modern, noisy and crazy life of the early 1920s. The square, with all its chaos and tumult, stands for the great transformations in society and politics of the time Weimar Republic as well as for Biberkopf’s strong character development.
There are also numerous in Berlin Alexanderplatz Bible quotes. Also two important ones symbol figures appear in the course of the action: The Whore of Babylon stands for the sins and vices that Biberkopf carries around with him. Franz loses himself and his motivation in a city full of crime and fraud. Last gives of all things the death, the second major symbolic figure in the novel, Biberkopf his new life.
structure of the novel
Alfred Döblin wrote his novel in nine separate books. After about every third of the novel, a stroke of fate occurs that repeatedly destroys Franz Biberkopf’s life. Death then appears to Franz in the ninth book and Biberkopf seizes his chance to come back to life.
The plot is often confusing and not written linearly. In this way, readers can immerse themselves directly in the events. A authorial, i.e. an omniscient narrator appears in the introduction to the novel, as well as before the beginning of each of the nine sections, and explains the following plot. It is therefore a fictional dialogue with the readers.
Sometimes the narrator questions his own role and makes ironic comments about the plot. The events are visualized and appear real. Inner monologuesboth by Franz and by Reinhold, give the reader an insight into their emotional world.
Contemporary background
In terms of contemporary history, Berlin Alexanderplatz can be drawn into the literary currents of the expressionism or in the Berlin Modernism classify
Of the…