Alfred Döblin

German novelist Alfred Doblin was born in Stettin, Germany, in 1888. When he was ten years old his family moved to Berlin, and Alfred later attended Berlin and Freiburg universities, where he studied medicine. He received his MD degree in 1905 and was hired by a newspaper in Regensburg as a correspondent. By this time he had already written two novels (only one of which was published, and that one not until 1919). His first published works were short stories published in a local magazine in 1904. He returned to Berlin in 1911 and set up a medical practice specializing in nervous disorders in the Alexanderplatz district. He continued writing, however, and in 1915 published to critical acclaim the novel "Die Drei Sprunge des Wang-lun". World War I interrupted his writing and medical careers, and he joined the German army as a physician. He remained in the army for three years, and took part in the horrendous battle of Verdun, in which it is estimated that more than one million men died. After the war he continued writing and several of his novels were published, including "Wallenstein" (1920), an epic novel about the Thirty Years War. He didn't confine himself just to historical novels, however. He turned out several plays and a science-fiction fantasy, "Berge, Meere und Giganten" (1924), about life in the period from the years 2700-3000 in which machines have taken over the most of the functions performed by man, wreaking havoc with humanity. In 1926 he was elected to the Prussian Academy. In 1927 he turned out an epic poem, "Manas", and then two years later he published what many consider his masterwork, "Alexanderplatz", a novel about life in the working-class Berlin district where he spent many years. He wrote more books and plays that were successful, but the rise of Naziism and Adolf Hitler troubled him, and he left Germany. He moved around Europe until the German takeover of Holland, where he was living at the time, resulted in his moving to the US, where he settled down in Hollywood. He moved back to Germany after the war, and died in Emmendingen in 1957 at age 78 of Parkinson's Disease.