Alfred Döblin

Born in Stettin in 1878 to assimilated Jews, Döblin moved to Berlin at ten after his father abandoned the family, then spent the next forty-five years there practicing medicine and writing, circulating among Expressionists, Brecht, and Mann. His first novel, Die drei Sprünge des Wang-lung, appeared in 1915; Berlin Alexanderplatz arrived in 1929 and brought brief celebrity. The Nazis forced him into exile in 1933, first to France, then to Los Angeles during the war, where he converted to Catholicism. He returned to West Germany afterward but felt out of place in its conservative climate, moved back to France, and spent his final years in poor health and financial trouble. His last novel, Hamlet oder Die lange Nacht nimmt ein Ende, came out in 1956, a year before his death - thirty volumes of work met mostly with neglect.