Alfred Döblin

German expressionist novelist (1878–1957)

  • Fame55.4
  • Momentum0.4
  • Wikipedia8.1K
Source-basedFalling
Lived 1878–1957, aged 79Germany
Germany flagGermanyWritersWriter / Author
  • Wikipedia
    55 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Era
    1878–1957
    Aged 79
  • Known for
    Berlin Alexanderplatz
    2020
Summary
Updated 2026-06-10

Berlin Alexanderplatz made him a literary celebrity in 1929, but Döblin wrote more than a dozen novels across half a century — science fiction, historical epics, metropolis stories — and remains far less known than Mann or Kafka despite belonging in their company.

Biography

About

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…

By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Falling
55.4
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Momentum0.4
Historical24.1
Source confidence70.0
Completeness80.0
Global rank
Country rank
Category rank
Receipts

Sources

  • Wikipedia
    wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
    High confidence
  • Wikidata
    wikidata · wikidata.org
    High confidence
  • Pantheon 2.0
    database · pantheon.world
    High confidence