History Literature / BerlinAlexanderplatz

It has subsequently been adapted to film (a 1931 film version by Piel Jutzi which was shot in the pre-war Berlin of the novel, and the actual Alexanderplatz) and most famously the 1980 miniseries by Creator/RainerWernerFassbinder that adapts virtually the entire novel and is remarkably faithful to the plot and characters of the text. Starring Gunther Lamprecht as Biberkopf, Creator/GottfriedJohn as Reinhold, Creator/HannaSchygulla as Eva and Barbara Sukowa as Mieze. Both versions are available on Creator/TheCriterionCollection.

A third film adaptation, directed by Burhan Qurbani, was released in 2020. It is [[SettingUpdate set in the present day]] and gives Franz a RaceLift and a different backstory.

It has subsequently been adapted to film (a 1931 film version by Piel Jutzi which was shot in the pre-war Berlin of the novel, and the actual Alexanderplatz) and most famously the 1980 miniseries by Creator/RainerWernerFassbinder. Fassbinder's TV-series was a 13 episode lengthy adaptation of virtually the entire novel and is remarkably faithful to the plot and characters of the text. Starring Gunther Lamprecht as Biberkopf, Creator/GottfriedJohn as Reinhold, Creator/HannaSchygulla as Eva and Barbara Sukowa as Mieze. Both versions are available on Creator/TheCriterionCollection.

* DaylightHorror: [[spoiler:Reinhold's murder of Mieze takes place in a beautiful day in a forest yet the novel describes Mieze's horror thoroughly. In Fassbinder's series, this entire sequence is done in a single extended take making [[ForcedToWatch the audience watch]] it uncomfortably]].

A third adaptation, directed by Burhan Qurbani, was released in 2020. It is [[SettingUpdate set in the present day]] and gives Franz a RaceLift and a different backstory.

''Berlin Alexanderplatz'' is a 1929 novel by [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Alfred Döblin]], set in the UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic, with most of the action set in UsefulNotes/{{Berlin}}. It was translated into English, in 1931, by Eugene Jolas (a friend and patron of Creator/JamesJoyce).

It has subsequently been adapted to film (a 1931 film version by Piel Jutzi which was shot in the pre-war Berlin of the novel, and the actual Alexanderplatz) and most famously the 1981 miniseries by Creator/RainerWernerFassbinder. Fassbinder's TV-series was a 13 episode lengthy adaptation of virtually the entire novel and is remarkably faithful to the plot and characters of the text. Starring Gunther Lamprecht as Biberkopf, Creator/GottfriedJohn as Reinhold, Hanna Schygulla as Eva and Barbara Sukowa as Mieze. Both versions are available on Creator/TheCriterionCollection.

''Berlin Alexanderplatz'' is a 1929 novel by [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Alfred Döblin]], set in the UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic, with most of the action set in UsefulNotes/{{Berlin}}.

The novel was translated into English, in 1931, by Eugene Jolas (a friend and patron of Creator/JamesJoyce). It has subsequently been adapted to film (a 1931 film version by Piel Jutzi which was shot in the pre-war Berlin of the novel, and the actual Alexanderplatz) and most famously the 1981 miniseries by Creator/RainerWernerFassbinder. Fassbinder's TV-series was a 13 episode lengthy adaptation of virtually the entire novel and is remarkably faithful to the plot and characters of the text. Starring Gunther Lamprecht as Biberkopf, Gottfried John as Reinhold, Hanna Schygulla as Eva and Barbara Sukowa as Mieze. Both versions are available on Creator/TheCriterionCollection.

* AntiHero: Franz Biberkopf is a Type IV, he's a former murderer and pimp attempting to be a ReformedCriminal and "[[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2008/01/17/the-genius-of-berlin/ ein anständiger Mensch]]". But he's still an alcoholic with rage issues, easily manipulated by rival factions [[spoiler:and in Fassbinder's view, a future Nazi]]. However, he is sincere in wanting to go straight, generally friendly to those who like him, and is far less brutal than his fellow lowlifes.

* WretchedHive: Berlin in TheTwenties as in this novel is as it was in life. It's full of lowlifes, bad housing, flophouses, prostitutes, criminals and weak institutions.

* InsaneForgiveness: Franz feels this for Reinhold [[spoiler:who he forgives for betraying him, making him lose his arm, and who even after he murders Mieze, Franz's love, he cannot feel any vendetta towards, and moreover allows him to go to jail with a light sentence]].

The protagonist Franz Bibekopf is a UsefulNotes/WorldWarI veteran turned pimp and lowlife. At the start of the story, he's released from Tegel prison for the crime of murdering his former girlfriend Ida in a fit of rage. Upon release, Franz plagued by guilt, remorse and trauma from his time in prison, resolves to be an upstanding citizen, but his love for booze, his perennially bad luck, and questionable choice of finding friends leads him on a spiral of repeating his old life. He engages in a series of picaresque adventurers with several Berliner lowlifes, undertakes a series of unfulfilling relationships, before encountering Reinhold, another cold and manipulative pimp who encroaches on Franz, as well as a prostitute named Mieze who Franz truly falls in love with.

The novel was translated into English by Eugene Jolas (a friend and patron of Creator/JamesJoyce). It has subsequently been adapted to film (a 1931 film version by Piel Jutzi which was shot in the pre-war Berlin of the novel, and the actual Alexanderplatz) and most famously the 1981 miniseries by Creator/RainerWernerFassbinder. Fassbinder's TV-series was a 13 episode lengthy adaptation of virtually the entire novel and is remarkably faithful to the plot and characters of the text. Starring Gunther Lamprecht as Biberkopf, Gottfried John as Reinhold, Hanna Schygulla as Eva and Barbara Sukowa as Mieze. Both versions are available on Creator/TheCriterionCollection.

The novel was a bestseller in its day, much to the surprise of Döblin, an experimental avant-garde author and it became seen as a classic modern novel in German literature. It was translated into English by Eugene Jolas (a friend and patron of Creator/JamesJoyce).

It has subsequently been adapted to film (a 1931 film version by Piel Jutzi which was shot in the pre-war Berlin of the novel, and the actual Alexanderplatz) and most famously the 1981 miniseries by Creator/RainerWernerFassbinder. Fassbinder's TV-series was a 13 episode lengthy adaptation of virtually the entire novel and is remarkably faithful to the plot and characters of the text. Starring Gunther Lamprecht as Biberkopf, Gottfried John as Reinhold, Hanna Schygulla as Eva and Barbara Sukowa as Mieze. Both versions are available on Creator/TheCriterionCollection.

!! Tropes for the Fassbinder miniseries only

* AdaptationDistillation: Fassbinder's TV Show combines quite a few supporting characters in the book into single characters to serve as series regulars. In the novel Biberkopf has a series of girlfriends and the character Eva shows up later in the text, but Fassbinder brings her and has her take on some of the roles other characters had. Likewise, in the book, Franz stays in a variety of homes where in the series, he stays in one apartment.
* AdaptationExpansion: The final section of the novel is made into a two hour Epilogue in the TV Show that gradually spins into something much weird, with {{Futureshadowing}} and AnachronismStew added. Likewise minor characters such as the landlady and Willy the Anarchist, who had small roles in the film have expanded appearances, with the landlady given a name (Frau Bast) and made into a series regular.

* DaylightHorror: [[spoiler:Reinhold's murder of Mieze takes place in a beautiful day in a forest yet the novel describes Mieze's horror thoroughly. In Fassbinder's series, this entire sequence is done in a single extended take making [[ForcedToWatch the audience watch]] it uncomfortably]].

* LeaveTheCameraRunning: Many examples of this kind in Fassbinder's miniseries. [[spoiler:The finale where Reinhold murders Mieze is one particularly dark example]].

* PopStarComposer: Fassbinder's [[spoiler:epilogue features a lot of anachronistic songs, including "Candy Says" by Music/TheVelvetUnderground, "Me and Bobby [=McGee=]" by Music/JanisJoplin, tracks by Music/{{Kraftwerk}} and "Chelsea Hotel" by Music/LeonardCohen]].

* TrippyFinaleSyndrome: Fassbinder's miniseries is an early TropeCodifier. Most of the show is in a naturalist fashion but the finale undergoes GenreShift with [[spoiler:with Biberkopf going on a VisionQuest, seeing glimpses of UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust, people being cut up in a slaughterhouse, and other scenes in a weird eighties leather bar. This was done by Fassbinder to highlight the prescient nature of the novel, since the ForegoneConclusion of post-war Germany made it impossible to make it a simple period story as it was originally written]].

* PopStarComposer: The [[spoiler:epilogue features a lot of anachronistic songs, including "Candy Says" by Music/TheVelvetUnderground, "Me and Bobby [=McGee=]" by Music/JanisJoplin, tracks by Music/{{Kraftwerk}} and "Chelsea Hotel" by Music/LeonardCohen]].

* TheOutsideWorld: Franz on being released from prison is disoriented by the outside world. He feels SurivorsGuilt that he is released while his fellow prisoners are still locked up, and he also misses the routine of life in jail. Indeed, the narrator notes in a real sense when he is released to a world that had vastly changed in the interim period, that "the punishment begins"

* TheOutsideWorld: Franz on being released from prison is disoriented by the outside world

* AdaptationDistillation: Fassbinder's TV Show combines quite a few supporting characters in the book into single characters to serve as series regulars. In the novel Biberkopf has a series of girlfriends and the character Eva shows up later in the text, but Fassbinder brings her and has her take on some of the role. Likewise, in the book, Franz stays in a variety of homes where in the series, he stays in one apartment, whose land lady is made into a key supporting character (and moreover gets a name, Frau Bast).
* AdaptationExpansion: The final section of the novel is made into a two hour Epilogue in the TV Show that gradually spins into something much weird, with {{Futureshadowing}} and AnachronismStew added.

* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Franz
* TheDeterminator: Franz ''tries'' to be this. After being released from prison,

* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: The novel's chapters have subtitles, paragraphs have subtitles, many of which in the form of InWhichATropeIsDescribed.

--> '''Narrator''': Early in October the dispute which Pums had feared started among the members of the gang. About money, Pums as usual, regards the sale of their stuff as the main business of the gang, Reinhold and others, including Franz, its acquisition. It's according to the latter and not according to the sales, that the division of the spoils should be regulated; they constantly attribute too high receipts to Pums and resent his monopoly in the dealings with the fences; the reliable fences want to deal with Pums alone. The gang, although Pums makes many concessions and allows them a free hand whenever possible, insist that something has to be done about it. They are more for ujnion methods. He says they've got them already. But they refuse to believe that.

* TrippyFinaleSyndrome:

It has subsequently been adapted to film (a 1931 film version by Piel Jutzi which was shot in the pre-war Berlin of the novel, and the actual Alexanderplatz) and most famously the 1981 miniseries by Creator/RainerWernerFassbinder. Fassbinder's TV-series was a 13 episode lengthy adaptation of virtually the entire novel, starring Gunther Lamprecht as Biberkopf, Gottfried John as Reinhold, Hanna Schygulla as Eva and Barbara Sukowa as Mieze. Both versions are available on Creator/TheCriterionCollection.

! Tropes
* AdaptationDistillation: Fassbinder's
* AdaptationExpansion:
* AsTheGoodBookSays: Several passages from the Bible are quoted extensively in the text. The Ecclesiastes "To everything there is a season" becomes especially important in the final scenes [[spoiler:leading to Mieze's death]].

The novel was a bestseller in its day, much to the surprise of Döblin, an experimental avant-garde author and it became seen as a classic modern novel in German literature. It was translated into English by Eugene Jolas (a friend and patron of Creator/JamesJoyce). It has subsequently been adapted to film (a 1931 film version by Piel Jutzi which was shot in the pre-war Berlin of the novel, and the actual Alexanderplatz) and most famously the 1981 miniseries by Creator/RainerWernerFassbinder. Fassbinder's TV-series was a 13 episode lengthy adaptation of virtually the entire novel, starring Gunther Lamprecht as Biberkopf, Gottfried John as Reinhold, Hanna Schygulla as Eva and Barbara Sukowa as Mieze. Both versions are available on Creator/TheCriterionCollection.

----

!! Tropes

The novel was a phenomenal bestseller in its day, much to the surprise of Döblin, an experimental avant-garde author and it became seen as a classic modern novel in German literature. It was translated into English by Eugene Jolas (a friend and patron of Creator/JamesJoyce).

It has subsequently been adapted to film (a 1931 film version by Piel Jutzi which was shot in the pre-war Berlin of the novel, and the actual Alexanderplatz) and most famously the 1981 miniseries by Creator/RainerWernerFassbinder. Fassbinder's TV-series was a 13 episode lengthy adaptation of virtually the entire novel, starring Gunther Lamprecht as Biberkopf, Gottfried John as Reinhold, Hanna Schygulla as Eva and Barbara Sukowa as Mieze. Both versions are available on Creator/TheCriterionCollection.