Bruno Alfred Döblin

German Expressionist novelist, essayist, doctor, and Landauerian Christian socialist with a strong affiliation with anarchist thought, especially Kropotkin (though he was never active), born. Alfred Döblin's oeuvre encompasses over a dozen novels ranging in genre from historical novels to science fiction to novels about the modern metropolis; several dramas, radio plays (he was amongst the first to utilise the new medium), and screenplays; a true crime story; a travel account; two book-length philosophical treatises; scores of essays on politics, religion, art, and society; and numerous letters. Many of his works, including the best known for his novel 'Berlin Alexanderplatz' (1929), his science fiction novel 'Berge Meere und Giganten' (Mountains Seas and Giants; 1924) and the four part 'November 1918, Eine Deutsche Revolution' (November 1918: A German Revolution; 1934-45)[Vol. I: 'Bürger und Soldaten' (Citizens and Soldiers), Vol. II 'Verratenes Volk' (A People Betrayed), Vol. III, 'Heimkehr der Fronttruppen' (Return of the Frontline Troops), and Vol. IV, 'Karl und Rosa' (Karl and Rosa)] clearly display his anarchist sympathies. In 1910, Döblin became involved with the newly founded Expressionist journal 'Der Sturm', contributing numerous essays and literary pieces, including his early novel 'Der Schwarze Vorhang' (The Black Curtain; 1912). He also became part of the circle that included Erich Mühsam, who, along with Gustav Landauer's Christian anarchism, greatly influenced his political outlook. In order to avoid conscription in WWI, Döblin volunteered in December 1914 as a doctor and, despite sharing the widespread early enthusiasm for the war common among many German intellectuals, he soon became avowedly anti-war. His politicisation continued in the immediate post-war period, writing a series of satirical and polemical political essays under the pseudonym 'Linke Poot', some later published in 'Der Deutsche Maskenball' (The German Masked Ball; 1921). On March 12 1919, his sister Meta also died after being injured during skirmishes between the Spartacists and nationalist troops in Berlin. In late 1918, Döblin joined the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD), which ideologically stood between Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Communist party (KPD) of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg and later joining the SPD when the USPD dissolved in 1921. Never an active member, he resigned from the SPD in 1928 "out of protest against bureaucracy and bossism", in his own words. In 1925 he also joined the Gruppe 1925, a discussion circle of progressive and communist intellectuals including Bertolt Brecht, Johannes R. Becher, Ernst Bloch, Hermann Kasack, Rudolf Leonhard, Walter Mehring, Robert Musil, Joseph Roth, Ernst Toller, Kurt Tucholsky and Ernst Weiß, among others - Brecht went on to consider Döblin one of his most important influences. In Döblin's 'Berlin Alexanderplatz', one of the classic Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) novels, is the story of Franz Biberkopf, an ex-convict, who falls in with a gang of burglars. In Book 6 he is involved in a discussion with an old anarchist (having resumed his old life as a pimp and petty criminal and gone along to the meeting to be disruptive and have fun). He expounds his vaguely Nietzschean individualism via: "A man's got only himself, just himself. I look after myself. I'm a self-provider, I am!" Which the old anarchist (who, it has been argued, is Döblin's mouthpiece in the book) counters with the need for solidarity: "And I've told you that three dozen times already: you can't do anything alone. We need a fighting organisation". Originally projected to have a second volume, it was never written as Döblin was forced into exile in 1933 with the Nazi accession to power. "A comradely association of free men, forms the natural basic cell of all society, the small community; there one must begin. . . . That's what Prince Kropotkin had long known and taught, what he learned from the Swiss watchmakers in the Jurabund, in political jargon: syndicalism, anarchism"