Some authors seem immortal, others sink into oblivion. After a while, what remains? In his monthly series Should I re-read…?, The duty revisits one of these writers with the help of admirers and attentive observers. Today, one of the most important German authors of the XXe century, and paradoxically one of the most misunderstood: Alfred Döblin (1878–1957). Because the shine of berlin alexanderplatz (1929), this exceptional novel often compared to Ulyssesby James Joyce, conceals an eclectic, demanding body of work of unparalleled erudition.
He never knew about it, but Alfred Döblin owes a debt of gratitude to Rainer Werner Fassbinder. In 1980, the director of Marriage of Maria Braun and of Quarrel tackled the novel that had made the glory of its author, berlin alexanderplatz, to transform it into a series of an equally imposing dimension. However, for many moviegoers, this television monument in 14 episodes remains a work of Fassbinder, but it has brought to that of Döblin a lasting influence that goes beyond the borders of Germany.
The writer and doctor was, somewhat in spite of himself, a citizen of the world, tossed about by the turmoil of the first half of the 20th century.e century. His escape from the Nazi regime with his wife and their youngest son by crossing France, Spain and Portugal to reach California is sometimes an adventure story, not to mention that he will become a French citizen, then return to his native country after the Second World War in order to denazify it.
But what does our Franz do? Him ? Well, what do you want him to do? Drift left and right, and he’s calm and phlegm personified. With this guy you can do whatever you want, he will always land on his feet. There are people like that, not many it is true, but there are.
Coming from a non-practicing Jewish family, Alfred Döblin also experienced internal exile, marginalized like all the people of his community, which will have a definite influence on his work. “Before 1918, access by Jews to ministerial and university posts was forbidden,” says Anthony Steinhoff, a specialist in German history of the 19th century.e and XXe century at UQAM. As a doctor, Döblin would have liked to work in a university clinic, but he had to resolve to open a practice in a poor district of Berlin. The patients he has known find themselves in berlin alexanderplatz. »
Strongly influenced by Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche in his early twenties, very steeped in the then triumphant German expressionist current, Alfred Döblin stands out for his studious approach to the novel, his fictions drawing not only from reality, but from all the knowledge available at his time.
This acuity continues to fascinate David Midgley, professor of German literature at the University of Cambridge, England. From the beginning of his career to the end, the writer displays an intellectual rigor that honors him, according to the specialist in the work of Alfred Döblin. “For one of his first books, The Three Leaps of Wang Mon. Chinese Novel (1915), he did a lot of research before writing it. At the time, Germany had a colony in China. Wang Lun, the hero, is a rebel against the imperial regime, but who simply reacts to what he sees. Subsequently, in his last great novel, Hamlet or The Long Night Ends (1956), a fascinating book, it accurately describes a typical middle-class family… and English. »
I feel like Hamlet to whom we lie, who we want to distract, and finally send on a trip – because we fear him, because he knows what happened…
This attention to detail also dazzles Jürgen Heizmann, full professor of German literature at the University of Montreal, who finds it unfortunate that this great expressionist writer is reduced to berlin alexanderplatz. Another proof of his great talent, including that of immersing himself in places and cultures by the sheer force of his intellect: Amazonas (1937-1938). “It’s an incredible trilogy, exclaims Jürgen Heizmann. I particularly recommend the 1second volume, The blue tiger, describing the arrival of the Jesuits in Brazil and Paraguay, and their confrontation with the indigenous peoples. It is a work that is both very realistic, but also magical, which integrates their perspective. There is also an ecological dimension: the Europeans want to master nature, while the natives try to live with it. »
This enthusiasm is shared by David Midgley. “He wrote this book in Paris and was inspired by ethnographic works to bring this universe to life”, he says with admiration, regretting in passing that this work is underestimated compared to the rest of his work.
However, for many, Alfred Döblin earned his place in the German literary pantheon thanks to berlin alexanderplatza powerful novel that immerses us in the effervescence and chaos of the German capital during the 1920s. Through the trajectory of Franz Biberkopf, a delinquent determined to take the right path upon his release from prison, it is a city mixed race, colorful, populated by crooks and prostitutes which comes to life, but also a whole people, carried by a wind of hope, that of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933).
This political regime might seem idyllic when compared to the one that Adolf Hitler would later impose, but it was not a rose garden, especially after the defeat of the First World War, recalls Anthony Steinhoff. “Berlin was shaken by scenes of violence, a major political crisis, not to mention economic difficulties. This coalition of liberals, social democrats and Catholics wanted to make room for marginalized groups, and in this regard Berlin was a real laboratory. Unfortunately, within the civil service, a conservative bastion, people refused the changes proposed by the Weimar Republic and used the bureaucratic machine to curb them. »
It is this chaotic world that presents berlin alexanderplatz, but which is more reminiscent of Dostoyevsky than Charles Dickens or Émile Zola, multiplying the intrigues, the levels of language and the interior monologues. “Alfred Döblin proves his great knowledge of the different circles that animated Berlin, as much that of criminals as that of prostitutes, underlines Jürgen Heizmann. It always strikes me how modern his style is; it is very popular with young Germans today. I don’t know the French translation, but Döblin uses the Berlin patois, which is very popular in Germany because everyone wants to go to Berlin. »
In fact, I don’t think at all, in my wagon, of flight, or of my country of asylum. My thoughts don’t go that far at all. I only feel, like the others, the hardness of the blow and the weight of its darkness. I see everyone sitting around me in this car remaining silent, talking or pretending to be asleep; cruelly affected, we are abandoned to ourselves. We were guided, protected by the state — we are no longer. Defeat: a primitive state.
Beyond this cult book, the reasons for Alfred Döblin’s confidentiality are numerous and nebulous. His conversion to Catholicism aroused the ire of several compatriots and writers, including Bertolt Brecht, who split with a sarcastic poem, Peinlicher Vorfall (meaning “Embarrassing Incident”), when he heard the news. His French citizenship will also isolate him from the German publishing world and, if he has appeared several times on the list of candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature, he has never won this prize. “No more than James Joyce, which shows how conservative this price is,” said Jürgen Heizmann.
David Midgley is more prosaic. “Alfred Döblin poses two challenges when you want to study him: each book takes a long time to read and each book is different! In a French translation published in 2010, the four volumes of November 1918. A German Revolution have 2336 pages.