Franz Biberkopf

Berlin Alexanderplatz

Reproduction of the 1st edition cover
Author	Alfred Döblin
Cover artist	George Salter
Country	Germany
Language	German
Genre	Novel
Publisher	S. Fischer Verlag, Berlin
Publication date	1929

Berlin Alexanderplatz (German: [bɛɐˈliːn ˌalɛˈksandɐplats]) 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.

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 will not last as the story continues.

The novel is set in the working-class neighborhoods near the 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.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)". The novel is told from multiple points of view, and uses sound effects, newspaper articles, songs, speeches, and other books to propel the plot forward.

The novel was translated into English in 1931 by Eugene Jolas, a friend of James Joyce. It was not well received; in particular it was criticized for the way in which it rendered everyday working-class speech. A 2018 English translation by Michael Hofmann, published by New York Review Books, was given a starred review from Kirkus Reviews, which called it "vigorous and fresh" and a "welcome refurbishing of a masterpiece of literary modernism". 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".