Berlin Alexanderplatz

The innovative novel by Alfred Döblin (1878–1957) "Berlin Alexanderplatz" had huge success in Germany immediately after its publication in 1929. After all, Franz Biberkopf, the story's protagonist, is not exactly the kind of character one would readily choose as a hero. A simple hired worker, a lover of women, just released from prison with a vague desire to live honestly and without problems. And here he is again free, in Berlin. Around him is some incomprehensible turmoil: communists, fascists, gangsters, Jews, police… It's hard to find work. Our hero watches everything closely, adapts, and searches for his place in the sun once again. Among other things, he meets a certain Reinhold and participates in a deal with a fruit trader — and Franz's fate takes another sharp turn... The novel, inherently cinematic, has been adapted several times. The television epic by director Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1980) received worldwide acclaim.