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166-553: Born in Stettin , Germany (now Szczecin , Poland), to assimilated Jews, Döblin moved with his mother and siblings to Berlin when he was ten years old after his father had abandoned them. Döblin would live in Berlin for almost all of the next forty-five years, engaging with such key figures of the prewar and Weimar-era German cultural scene as Herwarth Walden and the circle of Expressionists , Bertolt Brecht , and Thomas Mann . Only

332-626: A Landtag that had met in Stettin in 1563 introduced a sixfold rise in real estate taxes to finance the raising of a mercenary army for the duchy's defence. Johann Friedrich also succeeded in elevating Stettin to one of only three places allowed to coin money in the Upper Saxon Circle of the Holy Roman Empire, the other two places being Leipzig and Berlin . Bogislaw XIV , who resided in Stettin beginning in 1620, became

498-782: A general strike . All these were suppressed by the authorities. Pope John Paul II visited the city on 11   June 1987. Another wave of strikes in Szczecin broke out in 1988 and 1989, which eventually led to the Round Table Agreement and first semi-free elections in post-war Poland . Szczecin has been the capital of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999. Szczecin has an oceanic climate ( Köppen : Cfb ) with some humid continental ( Dfb ) characteristics in normal not updated, typical of Western Pomerania . The winters are colder than on

664-660: A local government charter in 1237, separating the German settlement from the Slavic community settled around the St. Nicholas Church in the neighbourhood of Kessin ( Polish : Chyzin ). In the charter, the Slavs were put under Germanic jurisdiction. When Barnim granted Szczecin Magdeburg rights in 1243, part of the Slavic settlement was reconstructed. The duke had to promise to level

830-462: A 16-year-old nurse from a Protestant background with whom he became romantically involved. In the spring of 1909 he began seeing the 21-year-old Erna Reiss, a medical student and daughter of a wealthy Jewish factory owner. Despite his continued involvement with Kunke, at the urging of his family he was reluctantly engaged to Reiss on 13 February 1911 and married her on 23 January 1912; his older brother Hugo and Herwarth Walden served as best men. During

996-610: A 1967 essay, Günter Grass declared: "Without the Futurist elements of Döblin's work from Wang Lun to Berlin Alexanderplatz , my prose is inconceivable." Döblin was also an influence on writers such as W.G. Sebald and Bertolt Brecht; as Brecht wrote in 1943, "I learned more about the essence of the epic from Döblin than from anyone else. His epic writing and even his theory about the epic strongly influenced my own dramatic art." Modern, well-edited, critical volumes of almost

1162-515: A 2002 poll of 100 noted writers from around the world, Berlin Alexanderplatz was named among the top 100 books of all time. November 1918: A German Revolution ( November 1918, eine deutsche Revolution ) is a novel tetralogy about the German Revolution of 1918–1919 . The four volumes—Vol. I: Bürger und Soldaten ( Citizens and Soldiers ), Vol. II Verratenes Volk ( A People Betrayed ), Vol. III, Heimkehr der Fronttruppen ( Return of

1328-578: A Danish force in 1190. While the empire restored its superiority over the Duchy of Pomerania in the Battle of Bornhöved in 1227, Szczecin was one of two bridgeheads remaining under Danish control (until 1235; Wolgast until 1241/43 or 1250). In the second half of the 12th century, a group of German tradesmen ("multus populus Teutonicorum" from various parts of the Holy Roman Empire) settled in

1494-545: A Long Night ) (1956) was Döblin's last novel. Set in England immediately after the Second World War , the novel narrates the story of Edward Allison, an English soldier who had been badly wounded during the war. Back among his family, Edward must deal with his war trauma, long buried family conflicts, and his destabilized sense of self. The novel treats such themes as the search for the self, guilt and responsibility,

1660-413: A Polish Scout team and a Polish school. German historian Musekamp writes, "however, only very few Poles were active in these institutions, which for the most part were headed by employees of the [Polish] consulate." The withdrawal of the consulate from these institutions led to a general decline of these activities, which were in part upheld by Golisz and Aleksander Omieczyński. Intensified repressions by

1826-506: A comprehensive and epistemological theory. He consistently pursues this approach to the conclusion that all philosophical problems are problems of language. Thus, Mauthner can be understood as a precursor of logical empiricism . Philosopher Elisabeth Leinfellner calls him a thinker in the Austrian tradition of philosophy, but also writes that he regards himself as a thinker in the succession of Hume. Weiler calls Mauthner paradigmatic for

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1992-501: A critique of human knowledge and of philosophy of language . He became editor of the Berliner Tageblatt in 1895, but is remembered mainly for his Beiträge zu einer Kritik der Sprache ( Contributions to a Critique of Language ), published in three parts in 1901 and 1902. Ludwig Wittgenstein took several of his ideas from Mauthner, and acknowledges him in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922). Fritz Mauthner

2158-432: A culmination of the critique of language. It is assumed that the importance of mysticism emerged from his collaboration with Hedwig Straub. In 1912, his last novel Der letzte Tod des Gautama Buddha ( The Last Death of Gautama Buddha ) was published. During World War I , Mauthner wrote inflammatory and nationalistic newspaper articles. He reflected on the connection between philosophy and war; although he did not embrace

2324-423: A doctor. Despite sharing in the widespread early enthusiasm for the war among German intellectuals, he soon developed a pacifist disposition. His son Wolfgang was born on 17 March 1915, followed by the births of Klaus on 20 May 1917 and Stefan on 7 December 1926. In Saargemünd the family lived in a small apartment at Neunkircherstraße 19; due to their financial situation they had to give up their Berlin apartment at

2490-425: A doubling of customs tax for Slavic merchants, and bans against public usage of their native language. The more prosperous Slavic citizens were forcibly stripped of their possessions, which were then handed over to Germans. In 1514, the guild of tailors added a Wendenparagraph to its statutes, banning Slavs. While not as heavily affected by medieval witchhunts as other regions of the empire, there are reports of

2656-637: A few years after his rise to literary celebrity with the 1929 publication of Berlin Alexanderplatz , Döblin was forced into exile by the rise of the Nazi dictatorship . Works by Döblin were also considered " Asphalt literature ". He spent 1933–1940 in France and then was forced to flee again at the start of the Second World War . Like many other German émigrés he spent the war years in Los Angeles , where he converted to Catholicism. He moved to West Germany after

2822-474: A former Pomeranian burg, "Vadam" or "Dambe", which Boleslaw had destroyed during his 1121 campaign. On 2 December 1261, Barnim I allowed Jewish settlement in Szczecin in accordance with the Magdeburg law, in a privilege renewed in 1308 and 1371. The Jewish Jordan family was granted citizenship in 1325, but none of the 22 Jews allowed to settle in the duchy in 1481 lived in the city, and in 1492, all Jews in

2988-480: A logical analysis of language is also condemned to fail, as he regards logic as just another form of language. Mauthner's philosophy stands for the tragic admission that it is impossible to gain knowledge through the means of language. Mauthner identifies empiricism as the school of thought that gave him the idea of the critique of language. For him, everything that is regarded knowledge can be traced back to sensory experience . The central feature for this assumption

3154-411: A modern metropolis have earned it a place among the key works of literary modernism. Berlin Alexanderplatz tells the story of Franz Biberkopf, who as the novel opens has just been released from prison for killing his lover. Although he seeks to become respectable, he is quickly drawn into a struggle "with something that comes from without, that is unpredictable and looks like a destiny." Biberkopf suffers

3320-639: A position at the Berlin psychiatric clinic in Buch where he worked as an assistant doctor for nearly two years. He then transferred to the city hospital "Am Urban," where he dedicated himself to internal medicine with a renewed interest. He opened his first private practice in October 1911 at Blücherstrasse 18 in Berlin's Kreuzberg neighborhood, before moving the practice to Frankfurter Allee 184 in Berlin's working-class east. While working in Buch he met Friede Kunke,

3486-494: A positive review and communicated his enthusiasm in letters to Mauthner. Kühn lists forty to fifty reviews from 1901 that react to the publication Mauthner's Contributions . Gustav Landauer undertakes an early examination of Mauthner's philosophy in 1902 and writes the book Skepsis und Mystik that depicts Mauthner as a mystic. Hermann Häfker and Theodor Lessing were critical of Mauthner and accused him of confusion in his philosophical foundations. The first monograph on Mauthner

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3652-479: A precursor to Döblin's better-known Berlin Alexanderplatz . Wadzeks Kampf mit der Dampfturbine ( Wadzek's Battle with the Steam Turbine ) tells the story of Wadzek, a factory owner locked in a losing battle with a more powerful competitor. His futile and increasingly delusional countermeasures culminate in the fortification and quixotic defense of his family's garden house in suburban Reinickendorf. Following

3818-767: A predecessor of the Hanseatic League , in 1283. The city prospered due to its participation in the Baltic Sea trade, primarily with herring , grain, and timber; craftsmanship also prospered, and more than forty guilds were established in the city. The far-reaching autonomy granted by the House of Griffins was in part reduced when the dukes reclaimed Stettin as their main residence in the late 15th century. The anti-Slavic policies of German merchants and craftsmen intensified in this period, resulting in measures such as bans on people of Slavic descent joining craft guilds,

3984-585: A seamstress twenty years his junior, and moved to America to start a new life. The catastrophic loss of his father was a central event in Döblin's childhood and would be formative for his later life. Shortly thereafter, in October 1888, Sophie and the five children moved to Berlin and took up residence in a small shabby apartment on the Blumenstraße in Berlin's working-class east. Döblin's parents briefly reconciled in 1889, when Max returned penniless from America;

4150-545: A series of setbacks and catastrophes, including the murder of his lover and the loss of an arm. The novel earned Döblin global recognition and literary celebrity, and was translated into English in 1931 by Eugene Jolas , a friend of James Joyce. It has been filmed twice, once in the 1931 Berlin-Alexanderplatz , directed by Phil Jutzi and starring Heinrich George as Biberkopf, and then again in Rainer Werner Fassbinder 's 1980 14-part television film . In

4316-431: A speech, Fritz Kortner , Peter Lorre , and Alexander Granach read aloud from Döblin's works, and he was presented with notes of congratulation and praise from Brecht, Max Horkheimer , and Alfred Polgar , among others. Compositions by Hanns Eisler were performed, and Blandine Ebinger sang Berlin chansons . Yet the festivities were dampened when Döblin gave a speech in which he mentioned his conversion to Catholicism;

4482-458: A sporadic relationship for over a decade, for the last time. Döblin finished his novel Babylonische Wandrung at the end of 1933. In 1935, he began work on his Amazon Trilogy , which narrates the colonization and Christianization of South America and was published in 1937–1938. During this time he also began work on his four-part novel project November 1918 about the revolution in Germany at

4648-544: A staple town, and subsidised manufacturers. Also, colonists were settled in the city, primarily French Huguenots . The French established a prosperous community, greatly contributed to the city's economic revival, and were treated with reluctance by the German burghers and city authorities. In October 1806, during the War of the Fourth Coalition , believing that he was facing a much larger force, and after receiving

4814-450: A temple, Shiva comes down to subdue him, but Manas' Ego calls out to the natural world, and Shiva has to release him, transforming the demons into sleek winged panthers on which Manas rides to connect Souls longing to return with humans tired of life. This powerful and sometimes puzzling story is told in a vigorous, direct and dramatic language, with constantly shifting moods and voices. In order to make it more accessible to English readers in

4980-517: A threat of harsh treatment of the city, the Prussian commander Lieutenant General Friedrich von Romberg agreed to surrender the city to the French led by General Lasalle . In fact, Lasalle had only 800 men against von   Romberg's 5,300 men. In March 1809 Romberg was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for giving up Stettin without a fight. In 1809, also Polish troops were stationed in

5146-660: A tragic tone, the book earned the praise of a young Bertolt Brecht . Although Döblin's 1920 epic about the Thirty Years' War was in general favorably received by critics, he was disappointed with the reception because he felt he had created in Wallenstein a peerless work; as a consequence, he wrote a scathing critique of critics which he published in 1921 under the title Der Epiker, sein Stoff und die Kritik ( The Epic Poet, his Material, and Critique ). The novel centers on

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5312-619: A venue for the publication of numerous literary and essayistic contributions. Through Walden Döblin made the acquaintance of poet Else Lasker-Schüler . At regular meetings at the Café des Westens on Kurfürstendamm or at the wine bar Dalbelli, Döblin got to know the circle of artists and intellectuals that would become central to the Expressionist movement in Berlin, including Peter Hille, Richard Dehmel , Erich Mühsam , Paul Scheerbart , and Frank Wedekind , among others. In October 1911 he met

5478-543: A volume called Der deutsche Maskenball ( The German Masked Ball ). In February 1921, he met the 21-year-old photographer Charlotte ("Yolla") Niclas; the close romantic relationship between the two was to last many years, despite their age difference. The same year, following a family vacation to the Baltic coast, he began preparatory work on his science fiction novel Berge Meere und Giganten ( Mountains Seas and Giants ), which would be published in 1924. In 1920 Döblin joined

5644-469: A way unlikely to attract public notice. The action was the first deportation of Jews from prewar territory in Nazi Germany. Allied air raids in 1944 and heavy fighting between the German and Soviet armies destroyed 65% of Stettin's buildings and almost all of the city centre, the seaport, and local industries. Polish Home Army intelligence assisted in pinpointing targets for Allied bombing in

5810-480: A week, but his contract expired in October 1941 and was not renewed, despite the interventions of Thomas Mann and others. Alfred, Erna, and Stefan were baptized as Roman Catholics in Hollywood's Blessed Sacrament Church on 30 November 1941. Döblin completed work on November 1918 in the spring of 1943, but was unable to find a publisher. The only work of his that was published in German during his American exile

5976-572: A work influenced by his own critique of language. In 1909, Mauthner moved with his wife Hedwig to Meersburg on Lake Constance , in a well-known house called Glaserhäusle . There he wrote the monograph Die Sprache ( Language ) for the series Die Gesellschaft , edited by Martin Buber . Mauthner worked on the Wörterbuch der Philosophie ( Dictionary of Philosophy ) and Der Atheismus und seine Geschichte im Abendlande ( Atheism and its History in

6142-438: Is 537 mm, the average rainfall in the cool half-year is 225 mm, and in the warmer half-year is 350 mm. On average, 167 days with precipitation occurs. See or edit raw graph data . Fritz Mauthner Fritz Mauthner (22 November 1849 – 29 June 1923) was an Austrian philosopher and author of novels, satires, reviews and journalistic works. He was an exponent of philosophical scepticism derived from

6308-484: Is concerned with the philosophy of language and atheism. Three books, each in several volumes, can be regarded as his main theoretical contributions: The Beiträge zu einer Kritik der Sprache (three volumes 1901–1902, third revised edition 1923), Wörterbuch der Philosophie (two volumes 1910, third revised edition in three volumes 1923–1924) and Der Athesimus und seine Geschichte im Abendlande (four volumes 1920–1923). Besides these works, Mauthner published shorter works on

6474-494: Is discussed in the influential book The Meaning of Meaning by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards . The most influential reception in the English-speaking world comes from philosopher and writer Gershon Weiler, who published the first comprehensive English-language monograph on Mauthner, along with numerous essays. An intellectual biography is available in French. A modern German edition of Mauthner's works, including

6640-500: Is generally considered one of the most important German writers of the twentieth century; yet popular perception of his work rests almost exclusively on Berlin Alexanderplatz , considered the canonical German novel of the modern metropolis (" Großstadtroman "). His writing is characterized by an innovative use of montage and perspectival play, as well as what he dubbed in 1913 a "fantasy of fact" (" Tatsachenphantasie ")—an interdisciplinary poetics that draws on modern discourses ranging from

6806-485: Is his concept of the Zufallssinne ( contingent senses ): if all knowledge is traced back to sensory experience, then the sense organs are the condition for the possibility of knowledge. Animals and humans, however, have different sensory apparatuses and therefore perceive the world differently. The way humans see the world is a moment of evolutionary development. No organic condition of world perception can perceive

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6972-404: Is recognised by Mauthner. Language is useful for daily life, but not for knowledge. Belief in extra-linguistic reference is called word superstition ( Wortaberglaube ) or word fetish ( Wortfetisch ). In this context, Mauthner introduces the term Scheinbegriff ( pseudo-concept ), which later became one of the central concepts in the tradition of logical empiricism. The meaning attributed to

7138-484: Is shown by a remark in his Afterword to the 1955 East German edition of his big-city masterpiece: it was Manas with a Berlin accent , Praised on its publication by Robert Musil among others ( I assert with confidence that this work should have the greatest influence! ) it has attracted strangely little attention from Döblin scholars. Manas Part 1 tells the story of a war-hero suddenly struck with an existential realisation of Death. He demands to be taken to Shiva's Field of

7304-625: Is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland . Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border , it is a major seaport and Poland's seventh-largest city. As of 31 December 2022, the population was 391,566. Szczecin is located on the Oder River, south of the Szczecin Lagoon and the Bay of Pomerania . The city is situated along

7470-492: The Battle of Verchen in 1164, Szczecin duke Bogusław I, Duke of Pomerania became a vassal of the Duchy of Saxony's Henry the Lion . In 1173, Szczecin castellan Wartislaw II , could not resist a Danish attack and became vassal of Denmark . In 1181, Bogusław became a vassal of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1185, Bogusław again became a Danish vassal. Despite falling under foreign suzerainty, local dukes maintained close ties with

7636-620: The Beiträge zu einer Kritik der Sprache ( Contributions to a Critique of Language ). During the work, his wife Jenny died, and he suffered from an eye disease, which threatened to make him blind. He collaborated with anarchist philosopher and pacifist Gustav Landauer to finish the text. The Contributions to a Critique of Language appeared from 1901 to 1903 in the three volumes Zur Sprache und zur Psychologie ( On Language and Psychology ), Zur Sprachwissenschaft ( On Linguistics ) and Zur Logik und Grammatik ( On Logic and Grammar ). The work

7802-594: The Berliner Tageblatt , a leading liberal daily newspaper. He published books and volumes of poetry and became a well-known cultural figure. Mauthner, together with Paul Lindau , was considered Germany's most qualified theatre critic. In 1878 he married Jenny Ehrenberg, a pianist, and his only daughter Grete was born. In the following years, Mauthner worked as an editor, publisher, critic and writer. His novels were historical, socio-critical, German-national, satirical, and columnist. Some of his books, such as

7968-639: The Franco Prussian war of 1870–1871 , 1,700 French POWs were imprisoned there in deplorable conditions, resulting in the deaths of 600; after the Second World War monuments in their memory were built by the Polish authorities. Until 1873, Stettin remained a fortress. When part of the defensive structures were levelled, a new neighbourhood, Neustadt ("New Town") as well as water pipes, sewerage and drainage, and gas works were built to meet

8134-737: The German National People's Party (or DNVP) won most of the votes in the city, together winning 98,626 of 165,331 votes (59.3%), with the NSDAP getting 79,729 (47.9%) and the DNVP 18,897 (11.4%). In 1935, the Wehrmacht made Stettin the headquarters for Wehrkreis   II, which controlled the military units in all of Mecklenburg and Pomerania. It was also the area headquarters for units stationed at Stettin   I and II; Swinemünde ( Świnoujście ); Greifswald ; and Stralsund . In

8300-598: The German states of Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . The city's recorded history dates back over 1,300 years, when diverse tribes and peoples such as the Vikings and Lechites erected strongholds in the vicinity. It subsequently served as the seat of the Dukes of Pomerania and the House of Griffin . In the course of the millennium, Szczecin under different names was part of Piast Poland , Denmark , Sweden ,

8466-526: The Holy Roman Empire , Prussia , Germany and modern-day Poland. The city's architecture and cultural heritage reflects these periods, with excellent examples of Brick Gothic , Gründerzeit , Neoclassical , socialist realist and contemporary styles. The planned urban landscape was based on the Orion constellation , with avenues, roundabouts and extensive parkland. The city's chief landmarks include

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8632-529: The November 1918 trilogy: A People Betrayed (which also includes The Troops Return ) and Karl and Rosa (trans. John E. Woods, Fromm International, 1983 and 1987); Tales of a Long Night (trans John E Woods, From International, 1987; and the lesser-known big-city novel Men without Mercy (trans. Trevor and Phyllis Blewitt, Howard Fertig, 1976). Two works of autobiography have also been translated: Destiny's Journey (trans. Edna McCown, Paragon House, 1992),

8798-739: The Soviet occupation zone of Germany . The Soviet authorities had already appointed the German Communists Erich Spiegel and Erich Wiesner as mayors. Stettin is located mostly west of the Oder River, which was expected to become Poland's new western border, placing Stettin in East Germany. This would have been in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement between the victorious Allied powers, which envisaged

8964-924: The Szczecin Cathedral , the Ducal Castle , the National Museum and the Szczecin Philharmonic . Szczecin is the administrative and industrial centre of West Pomeranian Voivodeship and is the site of the University of Szczecin , Pomeranian Medical University , Maritime University , West Pomeranian University of Technology , Szczecin Art Academy , and the see of the Szczecin-Kamień Catholic Archdiocese . From 1999 onwards, Szczecin has served as

9130-549: The new border to be in "a line running from the Baltic Sea immediately west of Swinemünde, and thence along the Oder River[...]". Because of the returnees, the German population of the town swelled to 84,000. The mortality rate was at 20%, primarily due to starvation. However, Stettin and the mouth of the Oder River became Polish on 5   July 1945, as had been decided in a treaty signed on 26   July 1944 between

9296-759: The " Manes of Hölderlin". He sent a copy to the prominent critic and philosopher Fritz Mauthner who returned it a few days later. However, wishing to hide his artistic inclinations from his mother, Döblin had sent the manuscript under a false name, and was not able to retrieve it at the post office; he thus had to rewrite it entirely. After receiving his Abitur in 1900, Döblin enrolled at Friedrich Wilhelm University (now Humboldt University of Berlin ) and began studying general medicine. In May 1904 he moved to Freiburg im Breisgau to continue his studies, concentrating on neurology and psychiatry. He began his dissertation ("Disturbances of memory in Korsakoff's Psychosis ") in

9462-520: The 12th century, the city became one of the more important and powerful seaports of the Baltic Sea. In a campaign in the winter of 1121–1122, Bolesław III Wrymouth , the Duke of Poland , gained control of the region, including the city of Szczecin and its stronghold. The Polish ruler initiated Christianization, entrusting this task to Otto of Bamberg , and the inhabitants were Christianised by two missions of Otto in 1124 and 1128. At this time,

9628-681: The Association of German Writers ( Schutzverband Deutscher Schriftsteller ), and in 1924 he became its president. In November 1921 he began reviewing plays for the Prager Tagblatt , and in 1925 joined the Gruppe 1925 , a discussion circle of progressive and communist intellectuals including Bertolt Brecht , Johannes R. Becher , Ernst Bloch , Hermann Kasack , Rudolf Leonhard , Walter Mehring , Robert Musil , Joseph Roth , Ernst Toller , Kurt Tucholsky , and Ernst Weiß , among others. It

9794-647: The Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent". The city witnessed anti-communist revolts in 1956, 1970 and 1980. On August 30, 1980, first of the four August Agreements , which led to the first legalisation of the trade union Solidarity , was signed in Szczecin. The introduction of martial law in December 1981 met with a strike by the dockworkers of Szczecin shipyard, joined by other factories and workplaces in

9960-528: The Dead in the high Himalaya to commune with Souls on their way to dissolution. Having imbibed several dreadful life stories he falls unconscious, and his body is invaded by three demons who plan to use it to go down to the human world. Manas' guardian, Puto, attempting to drive out the demons, inadvertently kills the body, and Manas's soul wafts back onto the Field. Puto conveys the body back to Udaipur, then returns to

10126-603: The Early Middle Ages and the region became part of Poland in the 10th century. However, already Mieszko II Lambert (1025 ~ 1034) effectively lost control over the area and had to accept German suzerainty over the area of the Oder lagoon. Subsequent Polish rulers, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Liutician federation all aimed to control the territory. After the decline of the neighbouring regional centre Wolin in

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10292-427: The English tradition of empiricism. Mauthner's philosophy, like logical empiricism, is characterised by an anti-metaphysical attitude and a methodical approach through linguistic analysis. At the same time, his premises are based in a different tradition and his goal is not a reform of language through its analysis, but – as a paradoxical project – the destruction of language as a tool to gain knowledge . For Mauthner,

10458-422: The Frontline Troops ), and Vol. IV, Karl und Rosa ( Karl and Rosa )—together comprise the most significant work from Döblin's period of exile (1933–1945). The work was highly praised by figures such as Bertolt Brecht, and critic Gabriele Sander has described November 1918 as representing the culmination of Döblin's work in the genre of the historical novel. Hamlet oder Die lange Nacht nimmt ein Ende ( Tales of

10624-441: The German literary tradition. Döblin's 1924 science fiction novel recounts the course of human history from the 20th to the 27th century, portraying it as a catastrophic global struggle between technological mania, natural forces, and competing political visions. Berge Meere und Giganten ( Mountains Seas and Giants ) presciently invokes such topics as urbanization, the alienation from nature, ecological devastation, mechanization,

10790-488: The Glaserhäusle after her husband's death. During the National Socialist regime , as the widow of a Jew, she was banned from publishing books in 1933 and her pension payments were stopped. She survived through the help of friends and the Meersburg town priest Wilhelm Restle, and died impoverished in 1945. Fritz and Hedwig Mauthner are buried together at Meersburg cemetery; their gravestone reads Vom Menschsein erlöst ( Redeemed from being human ). Mauthner's philosophical work

10956-414: The Great Northern War, Sweden was forced to cede the city to King Frederick William I of Prussia . Stettin was made the capital city of the Prussian Pomeranian province , since 1815 reorganised as the Province of Pomerania . In 1816, the city had 26,000 inhabitants. The Prussian administration deprived the city of its right to administrative autonomy, abolished guild privileges as well as its status as

11122-403: The Nazis, who exaggerated the Polish activities to propagate an infiltration, led to the closing of the school. In 1938, the head of Szczecin's Union of Poles unit, Stanisław Borkowski, was imprisoned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany . In 1939, all Polish organisations in Stettin were disbanded by the German authorities. Golisz and Omieczyński were murdered during

11288-411: The Occident ). The Dictionary appeared in 1910 and 1911. In three volumes with about 2,000 pages in total, Mauthner exercised his critique of language, set out in the Contributions , exemplified on the central concepts of Western philosophy . His eye disease worsened during the process; he dictated the text to his wife Hedwig to write down and read out aloud. Mauthner developed a godless mysticism as

11454-429: The Oder River itself and the port of Szczecin, which remained under Soviet administration. The Oder River was handed over to Polish administration in September 1946, followed by the port between February 1946 and May 1954. While in 1945 the number of pre-war inhabitants dropped to 57,215 on 31 October 1945, the systematic expulsion of Germans started on 22 February 1946 and continued until late 1947, in accordance with

11620-528: The Potsdam Agreement. In December 1946 about 17,000 German inhabitants remained, while the number of Poles living in the city reached 100,000. To ease the tensions between settlers from different regions, and help overcome fear caused by the continued presence of the Soviet troops, a special event was organised in April 1946 with 50,000 visitors in the partly destroyed city centre. Settlers from Central Poland made up about 70% of Szczecin's new population. In addition to Poles, Ukrainians from Polish areas annexed by

11786-419: The Soviet Union settled there. Also Poles repatriated from Harbin , China and Greeks , refugees of the Greek Civil War , settled in Szczecin in the following years. In 1945 and 1946, the city was the starting point of the northern route used by the Jewish underground organisation Brichah to channel Jewish displaced persons from Central and Eastern Europe to the American occupation zone . Szczecin

11952-719: The Soviet Union and the Soviet-controlled Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN) (also known as "the Lublin Poles", as contrasted with the London -based Polish government-in-exile ). On 4   October 1945, the decisive land border of Poland was established west of the 1945 line, and the city was renamed to its historic Polish name Szczecin, but the area excluded the Police area,

12118-532: The Thirty Years' War primarily as a religious conflict, he portrays it critically as the absurd consequence of a combination of national-political, financial, and individual psychological factors. Döblin saw a strong similarity between the Thirty Years' War and the First World War , during which he wrote Wallenstein . The novel is counted among the most innovative and significant historical novels in

12284-764: The Wehrmacht. In October 1945, Alfred and Erna arrived in New York, sailing aboard the Argentine back to Europe. They first settled in Baden-Baden , where Döblin worked for the French military government as official representative for the office of public education; he was tasked with approving manuscripts for publication, and vehemently opposed the approval of any texts by authors who had sympathized with National Socialism, such as Ernst Jünger or Gottfried Benn . In postwar Germany's conservative cultural climate, Döblin

12450-547: The absence of any guidance from reviewers, the translator C D Godwin has adapted it as a Play for Voices, available for download at the website Beyond Alexanderplatz: Alfred Döblin's OTHER writings, in English. Generally considered Döblin's masterpiece, Berlin Alexanderplatz has become an iconic text of the Weimar Republic . Published in 1929, its innovative use of literary montage as well as its panoramic portrayal of

12616-471: The age of 56, Mauthner left Berlin and lived in Freiburg , where he met and married the physician and writer Hedwig (Harriet) Straub in 1907. His book on Spinoza was published in 1906, and as from 1907 he attended university lectures in mathematics and natural sciences, while devoting himself mainly to philosophy and writing. Mauthner regarded Hugo von Hofmannsthal 's The Lord Chandos Letter (1906) as

12782-409: The agricultural industry. According to German police reports from 1940, 15,000 Polish slave workers lived within the city. During the war, 135 forced labour camps for slave workers were established in the city. Most of the 25,000 slave workers were Poles, but Czechs , Italians , Frenchmen and Belgians , as well as Dutch citizens, were also enslaved in the camps. A Nazi prison was also operated in

12948-606: The alphabet" in Hebrew. As a German-speaking Jew in the Bohemian region of the Austrian Empire, Mauthner belonged to a double minority and struggled to find a sense of belonging. This experience is cited in later years as formative for his intellectual development. In the autobiography, Mauthner writes "I do not understand at all if a Jew born in a Slavic region of Austria is not pushed into linguistic research." In 1855,

13114-552: The area of Stettin. The city itself was covered by the Home Army's "Bałtyk" structure, and Polish resistance infiltrated Stettin's naval yards. Other activities of the resistance consisted of smuggling people to Sweden. The Soviet Red Army captured the city on 26   April 1945. While the majority of the almost 400,000 inhabitants had left the city, between 6,000 and 20,000 inhabitants remained in late April. On 28 April 1945 Polish authorities tried to gain control, but in

13280-477: The beginning of 1919, Döblin moved into his new apartment and medical practice at Frankfurter Allee 340 in Berlin. The immediate postwar period was a turbulent time for him—his financial situation was dire, and the death of his sister Meta on 12 March 1919 as the result of an injury sustained during skirmishes between the Spartacists and nationalist troops in Berlin showed how volatile the situation in Germany

13446-459: The belief and the conviction that the sceptical nominalism, with which I have shown the inadequacy of human language in general, particularly affects philosophical concepts, and among them most strongly the most general concepts." Mauthner states his philosophical programme of a critique of language in the introduction to the Dictionary as follows: "Philosophy is epistemology, epistemology is

13612-447: The burgh in 1249. Most Slavic inhabitants were resettled to two new suburbs north and south of the town. In 1249, Barnim I also granted equivalent Magdeburg town privileges to the town of Damm (also known as Altdamm) on the eastern bank of the Oder. Damm merged with neighbouring Szczecin on 15   October 1939 and is now the Dąbie neighbourhood. This town had been built on the site of

13778-493: The burning of three women and one man convicted of witchcraft in 1538. In 1570, during the reign of John Frederick, Duke of Pomerania , a congress was held at Stettin ending the Northern Seven Years' War . During the war, Stettin had tended to side with Denmark , while Stralsund tended toward Sweden  – as a whole, however, the Duchy of Pomerania tried to maintain neutrality. Nevertheless,

13944-463: The children's education, as "anti-religious". Mauthner's family spoke German, unlike most of the Bohemian population. His parents were proud of the fact that they spoke German. Mauthner learned German through his family, Czech through his nursemaid and a little Hebrew through a private teacher. Philosopher Gershon Weiler suggests that "it is unlikely that he ever passed beyond the point of mastering

14110-520: The city around St.   Jacob's Church, which was donated in 1180 by Beringer, a trader from Bamberg , and consecrated in 1187. Hohenkrug (now in Szczecin Struga ) was the first village in the Duchy of Pomerania that was clearly recorded as German ( villa teutonicorum ) in 1173. Ostsiedlung accelerated in Pomerania during the 13th century. Duke Barnim I of Pomerania granted Szczecin

14276-514: The city honour his name. Wars inhibited the city's economic prosperity, which had undergone a deep crisis during the devastation of the Thirty Years' War and was further impeded by the new Swedish-Brandenburg-Prussian frontier, cutting Stettin off from its traditional Farther Pomeranian hinterland. Due to a Plague during the Great Northern War , the city's population dropped from 6,000 people in 1709 to 4,000 in 1711. In 1720, after

14442-632: The city, while the French remained until 1813. From 1683 to 1812, one Jew was permitted to reside in Stettin, and an additional Jew was allowed to spend a night in the city in case of "urgent business". These permissions were repeatedly withdrawn between 1691 and 1716, also between 1726 and 1730 although else the Swedish regulation was continued by the Prussian administration. Only after the Prussian Edict of Emancipation of 11   March 1812, which granted Prussian citizenship to all Jews living in

14608-671: The city, with forced labour subcamps in the region. In February 1940, the Jews of Stettin were deported to the Lublin reservation . International press reports emerged, describing how the Nazis forced Jews, regardless of age, condition and gender, to sign away all property and loaded them onto trains headed to the camp, escorted by members of the SA and SS . Due to publicity given to the event, German institutions ordered such future actions to be made in

14774-600: The complete œuvre have been appearing in German since the 1980s, published by Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag and, since 2008, by the Fischer Verlag; and the Internationale Alfred-Döblin Kolloquien have been held every two years since the early 1980s. But only a handful of other works of fiction have ever appeared in English translations: The Three Leaps of Wang Lun (trans. C. D. Godwin, Chinese University Press, Hong Kong, 1991), and

14940-428: The critique of language; the critique of language, however, is the work on the liberating thought that people can never get beyond the figurative representation of the world with the words of their languages and with the words of their philosophies." While Mauthner's literary work can be considered forgotten, his philosophy of language resonated in the literature of the 20th century. Mauthner's influences can be found in

15106-530: The daughter of a merchant. His older brother was actor Hugo Döblin . His parents' marriage was characterized by a tension between Max's multifaceted artistic interests—to which Döblin would later attribute his and his siblings' artistic inclinations—and Sophie's cool pragmatism. The Döblins were assimilated Jews, and Alfred became aware of a broad, societal anti-Semitism early on. His parents' marriage dissolved in July 1888, when Max Döblin eloped with Henriette Zander,

15272-413: The dehumanization of the modern world, as well as mass migration, globalization, totalitarianism, fanaticism, terrorism, state surveillance, genetic engineering, synthetic food, the breeding of humans, biochemical warfare, and others. Stylistically and structurally experimental, it was regarded as a difficult work when it first came out and has often polarized critics. Among others, Günter Grass has praised

15438-549: The demands of the growing population. Stettin developed into a major Prussian port and became part of the German Empire in 1871. While most of the province retained its agrarian character, Stettin was industrialised , and its population rose from 27,000 in 1813 to 210,000 in 1900 and 255,500 in 1925. Major industries that flourished in Stettin from 1840 were shipbuilding, chemical and food industries, and machinery construction. Starting in 1843, Stettin became connected to

15604-588: The dissipation of this endeavor, he suffers a breakdown and finally flees the country, eloping aboard a steamship bound for America that is powered by the steam turbines of his victorious competitor. Döblin wrote the novel in the fall of 1914, submitting it to extensive stylistic revisions while serving as a doctor on the Western front; it was published in May 1918 by the Fischer Verlag . In its stringent refusal of

15770-620: The downfall of the Swedish Empire after Charles XII , the city went to Prussia in 1720. Instead Stralsund became capital of the last remaining parts of Swedish Pomerania 1720–1815. The city was on the path of Polish forces led by Hetman Stefan Czarniecki moving from Denmark during the Second Northern War . Czarniecki, who led his forces to the city, is today mentioned in the Polish anthem , and numerous locations in

15936-478: The duchy were ordered to convert to Christianity or leave – this order remained effective throughout the rest of the Griffin era. In 1273, in Szczecin duke of Poznań and future King of Poland Przemysł II married princess Ludgarda , granddaughter of Barnim I, Duke of Pomerania , in order to strengthen the alliance between the two rulers. Szczecin was part of the federation of Wendish towns ,

16102-504: The early part of his engagement to Reiss, he had been unaware that Kunke was pregnant: their son Bodo was born on 14 October 1911 and was raised by his grandmother, Elise Kunke, in Schleswig-Holstein following Friede's death from tuberculosis in 1918. Until the end of his life, Döblin maintained loose contact with Bodo, and his treatment of Friede became a lasting source of guilt. Döblin's first son with Erna Reiss, Peter Döblin,

16268-540: The end of February 1915. At the end of August, 1916, Döblin was awarded the Fontane Prize (including a monetary award of 600 Marks) for The Three Leaps of Wang Lun ( Die drei Sprünge des Wang-lun ). Following this recognition, Döblin set himself to work on his historical novel Wallenstein , set during the Thirty Years' War . Döblin had to interrupt work on the novel in March 1917 because he had caught typhus, but

16434-532: The end of the First World War . He acquired French nationality in October 1936. In May 1939, he briefly visited the United States to take part in a PEN congress in New York. With other writers, he met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House, and saw his old Berlin acquaintance Ernst Toller again, who was suffering from severe depression and killed himself shortly thereafter. After

16600-543: The family moved to Hamburg in April 1889, but when it came to light that Max had brought his lover back with him and was leading a double life, Sophie and the children returned to Berlin in September 1889. The sense of being déclassé, along with rocky experiences at school, made this a difficult time for Döblin. Although he had early been a good student, starting in his fourth year of Gymnasium his performance tended toward

16766-514: The first Christian church of Ss Peter and Paul was erected. The Poles' minted coins were commonly used in trade in this period. The population of the city at that time is estimated to be at around 5,000–9,000 people. Polish rule ended with Boleslaw's death in 1138. During the Wendish Crusade in 1147, a contingent led by the German margrave Albert the Bear , an enemy of Slavic presence in

16932-509: The first Polish organisations. In 1897, the city's ship works began the construction of the pre-dreadnought battleship Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse . In 1914, before World War   I, the Polish community in the city numbered over 3,000 people, contributing about 2% of the population. These were primarily industrial workers and their families who came from the Poznań (Posen) area and a few local wealthy industrialists and merchants. Among them

17098-509: The first state examination in law and worked as a theatre critic, writer and poet alongside his studies. With the death of his father in 1874, Mauthner broke off his studies. He published unsuccessful volumes of poetry, and worked as a journalist and playwright. His play Anna premiered at the Estates Theatre in 1874, but was discontinued after only a few performances. The comedy Die leidige Geldfrage ( The tiresome question of money )

17264-419: The five-year-old Mauthner moved to Prague with his family to be educated. Mauthner received private lessons, attended a private Jewish school ( Klippschule ) and later two secondary schools . In his autobiography he writes disparagingly about the low standard of the schools. He considered himself highly gifted and was resentful of the school system. His autobiography is largely a critique of the school system of

17430-595: The following month, the Polish administration was twice forced to leave. The reason for this was, according to Polish sources, that the Western Allies raised protest against the Soviet and Polish policy of creating a fait-accomplit in Eastern Germany . Finally the permanent handover occurred on 5   July 1945. In the meantime, part of the German population had returned, believing it might become part of

17596-527: The fragmented Polish realm, and future Polish monarch Władysław III Spindleshanks stayed at the local court of Duke Bogusław I in 1186, on behalf of his father, Duke of Greater Poland Mieszko III the Old , who also periodically was the High Duke of Poland . Following a conflict between his heirs and Canute VI of Denmark , the settlement was destroyed in 1189, but the fortress was reconstructed and manned with

17762-790: The harrowing account of Döblin's flight and exile in the 1940s; and the account of his mid-1920s Journey to Poland (trans J. Neugroschel , I. B. Tauris, 1991). Döblin's papers and manuscripts are housed at the German Literature Archive in Marbach am Neckar . Stettin Szczecin ( UK : / ˈ ʃ tʃ ɛ tʃ ɪ n / SHCHETCH -in , US : /- tʃ iː n / -⁠een , Polish: [ˈʂt͡ʂɛt͡ɕin] ; German : Stettin [ʃtɛˈtiːn] ; Swedish : Stettin [stɛˈtiːn] ; Latin : Sedinum or Stetinum )

17928-664: The high point of Döblin's fame. During this time he busied himself with lectures, readings, and the effort to contribute to a collective intellectual response to the growing power of the National Socialists . Just over a month after Hitler's ascension to power, Döblin left Germany, crossing into Switzerland on 2 March 1933. On May 10 there will be the auto-da-fé, I believe the Jew with my name will also be present, fortunately only in paper form. In this way they honor me. ... how will it be later on, in 1 year, 2 years, when will

18094-513: The immediate coast and the summers are warm, but still with some moderation, especially due to the Baltic Sea . The average air temperature in Szczecin ranges from 8 to 8.4 °C. The hottest month is July with a temperature of 15.8 °C to 20.3 °C, the coldest January from -4.1 °C to 2.6 °C. Air temperature below 0 °C occurs on average over 86 days a year, most frequently in January and February. The average annual rainfall

18260-399: The intellectual world of the Weimar Republic —in 1928, for example, he was elected to the prestigious Prussian Academy of Arts with the persistent support of Thomas Mann —literary and economic success continued to elude Döblin. This changed with the October 1929 publication of his novel Berlin Alexanderplatz which earned him national and global fame. One of the best known appraisals of

18426-604: The intervention of Theodor Heuss and Joachim Tiburtius, he was able to receive more money from the Berlin office in charge of compensating victims of Nazi persecution; this, and a literary prize from the Mainz Academy in the sum of 10,000 DM helped finance his growing medical expenses. Alfred Döblin died in the hospital in Emmendingen on 26 June 1957 and was buried two days later in the village cemetery at Housseras next to his son Wolfgang. Erna soon joined them in

18592-480: The interwar period, the Polish minority numbered 2,000 people, less than 1% of the city's population at that time. A number of Poles were members of the Union of Poles in Germany (ZPN), which was active in the city from 1924. A Polish consulate was located in the city between 1925 and 1939. On the initiative of the consulate and ZPN activist Maksymilian Golisz, a number of Polish institutions were established, e.g.,

18758-458: The kingdom, did a Jewish community emerge in Stettin, with the first Jews settling in the town in 1814. Construction of a synagogue started in 1834; the community also owned a religious and a secular school, an orphanage since 1855, and a retirement home since 1893. The Jewish community had between 1,000 and 1,200 members by 1873 and between 2,800 and 3,000 members by 1927–28. These numbers dropped to 2,701 in 1930 and to 2,322 in late 1934. After

18924-524: The last few decades, he is much less well known by the reading public than other German novelists such as Thomas Mann , Günter Grass or Franz Kafka . Bruno Alfred Döblin was born on 10 August 1878 at the house at Bollwerk 37 in Stettin (Szczecin) , a port city in what was then the Province of Pomerania . He was the fourth of five children born to Max Döblin (1846–1921), a master tailor from Posen (Poznań) , and Sophie Döblin (1844–1920), née Freudenheim,

19090-530: The major German and Pomeranian cities by railways, and the water connection to the Bay of Pomerania was enhanced by the construction of the Kaiserfahrt (now Piast) canal. The city was also a scientific centre; for example, it was home to the Entomological Society of Stettin . On 20 October 1890, some of the city's Poles created the "Society of Polish-Catholic Workers" in the city, one of

19256-652: The mediocre. Furthermore, his oppositional tendencies against the stern conventionality of the patriarchal, militaristic Wilhelminian educational system, which stood in contrast to his artistic inclinations and his free thought, earned him the status of a rebel among his teachers. Despite his hatred for school, Döblin early became a passionate writer and reader, counting Spinoza , Schopenhauer , and Nietzsche , as well as Heinrich von Kleist , Friedrich Hölderlin , and Fyodor Dostoyevsky among his most important early influences. He wrote his first novel, Jagende Rosse ( Rushing Steeds ), before completing school and dedicated it to

19422-505: The mountains to fight the demons. In Part 2, Savitri, Manas' wife, refuses to believe her husband is dead, and makes her arduous way up into the mountains to find him. Shiva becomes aware of her presence on his Field, and makes contact across their different dimensions. Savitri is able to couple with Manas' soul, and he is reborn into his body. Savitri, revealed now as the Universal Female, rejoins Shiva on Mount Kailash. In Part 3,

19588-527: The novel is Walter Benjamin 's essay, "Die Krisis des Romans" ("The Crisis of the Novel") which sees in Berlin Alexanderplatz 's radical use of montage a solution to the impasses of the traditional novel. Döblin soon began transforming Berlin Alexanderplatz into a radio play and agreed to cowrite the screenplay for the film version that premiered on 8 October 1931. The early 1930s marked

19754-417: The novel's continued relevance and insight. On June 15, 2021, Galileo Publishing released the first English translation of the novel, by Chris Godwin, under the title Mountains Oceans Giants: An Epic of the 27th Century. This remarkable but almost totally neglected epic in free verse immediately preceded Döblin's best-known work Berlin Alexanderplatz . That both works were closely associated in Döblin's mind

19920-516: The origin of the name, including derivations from either: an Old Slavic word for 'hill peak' (Polish: szczyt ), the plant fuller's teasel (Polish: szczeć ), or the personal name Szczota . Other medieval names for the town are Burstaborg (in the Knytlinga saga ) and Burstenburgh (in the Annals of Waldemar). These names, which literally mean 'brush burgh', are likely derived from

20086-756: The painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner , who painted several portraits of Döblin between 1912 and 1914 and illustrated some of Döblin's literary works. Döblin's early novel Der Schwarze Vorhang was published in Der Sturm , and in November 1912 the Munich publishing house Georg Müller published his collection of novellas under the title Die Ermordung einer Butterblume und andere Erzählungen . In May 1913, he completed his third novel The Three Leaps of Wang Lun ( Die drei Sprünge des Wang-lun ). Published in 1916, this historical novel about political uprising in 18th-century China

20252-409: The parodies, were very successful, and were translated and published in several print runs during Mauthner's lifetime. Their literary quality is judged ambivalently: The commercially successful works consist mainly of light novels, which can be judged as being shallow. Some of Mauthner's novels, however, contain reflections that would later be considered philosophically. 1893 Mauthner began to work on

20418-594: The philosophy books in his father's library, and states Mauthner's Contributions as being there among the works of Descartes , Spinoza, Kant , Schopenhauer and others. The second mention, to which Mauthner credits the philosophical interest, comes from Ludwig Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein mentions Mauthner in the Tractatus , and although it is a delimiting remark, this mention can be understood as an expression of appreciation, since Wittgenstein mentions very few philosophers by name. Mauthner's concept of word superstition

20584-603: The philosophy of Aristotle , Spinoza and Schopenhauer, as well as on various topics related to his philosophy of language. Mauthner's writing style is unorthodox: he draws on a variety of sources, combines his biography with theoretical considerations, he writes redundantly and, above all, comprehensively a lot (each of his three main works comprise more than 2,000 pages). Only a few of his smaller theoretical works have been translated into English (see Section "Philosophical works in English translation" ). Mauthner advocates an empirical , sceptical nominalism , which he develops into

20750-486: The psychiatric to the anthropological to the theological, in order to "register and articulate sensory experience and to open up his prose to new areas of knowledge." His engagement with such key movements of the European avant-garde as futurism , expressionism , dadaism , and Neue Sachlichkeit has led critic Sabina Becker to call him "perhaps the most significant representative of literary modernism in Berlin." In

20916-586: The publishing houses also be "coordinated"? Abroad, I can't be a doctor anymore, and why write, for whom? I cannot think about this fatal chapter. Alfred Döblin, letter of 28 April 1933 to Ferdinand Lion , on the imminent Nazi book burnings After a brief stay in Zürich , the family moved to Paris. Döblin's closest acquaintances during this time were Claire and Yvan Goll , Hermann Kesten , Arthur Koestler , Joseph Roth , Hans Sahl , and Manès Sperber . Here he also saw Robert Musil , with whom he had kept up

21082-418: The radical techniques that Döblin would later pioneer in Berlin Alexanderplatz . Introduced by a mutual acquaintance, Döblin met Georg Lewin, a music student better known as Herwarth Walden, who founded the Expressionist journal Der Sturm in 1910. Der Sturm , modeled after Karl Kraus 's newspaper Die Fackel ( The Torch ), would soon count Döblin among its most involved contributors, and provided him with

21248-400: The reborn Manas rejoices in his physicality, but does not understand where he fits into the world. He comes upon Puto fighting the three demons, captures them, and is carried by them back down into the world. A village priest declares that Manas and the demons make up a single new terrible being: likely meaning a human no longer innocent but equipped with Id, Ego and Superego. When Manas destroys

21414-403: The region, papal legate, bishop Anselm of Havelberg and Konrad of Meissen besieged the town. There, a Polish contingent supplied by Mieszko III the Old joined the crusaders. However, the citizens had placed crosses around the fortifications, indicating they already had been Christianised. Duke Ratibor I of Pomerania , negotiated the disbanding of the crusading forces. After

21580-480: The religious, moral tone proved alienating, and fell on unsympathetic ears. In 1945, Döblin's 18-year-old son Stefan was called up for military service in the French army. That spring had brought the good news that Klaus was alive and in Switzerland after a period working for the French resistance, and the grim tidings that Wolfgang was dead, having committed suicide five years to avoid being captured by troops of

21746-503: The same cemetery when after turning on the gas tap in the family apartment in Paris on 15 September, she forgot to light the flame. Die drei Sprünge des Wang-lun ( The Three Leaps of Wang Lun ) was Döblin's third novel (although it was the first to be published as a book), and garnered him the Fontane Prize. Published in 1916, (although back-dated to 1915), this epic historical novel narrates upheaval and revolution in 18th-century China, and

21912-510: The site of the headquarters of NATO 's Multinational Corps Northeast . The city was a candidate for the European Capital of Culture in 2016. Szczecin and Stettin are the Polish and German equivalents of the same name, which is of Proto-Slavic origin, though the exact etymology is the subject of ongoing research. In her Etymological Dictionary of Geographical Names of Poland , Maria Malec lists 11 theories regarding

22078-520: The sole ruler and Griffin duke when Philipp Julius, Duke of Pomerania died in 1625. Before the Thirty Years' War reached Pomerania, the city, as well as the entire duchy, declined economically due to the decrease in importance of the Hanseatic League and a conflict between Stettin and Frankfurt an der Oder . Following the Treaty of Stettin of 1630 , the town (along with most of Pomerania)

22244-660: The southwestern shore of Dąbie Lake , on both sides of the Oder and on several large islands between the western and eastern branches of the river. It is also surrounded by dense forests, shrubland and heaths , chiefly the Wkrzańska Heath shared with Germany (Ueckermünde) and the Szczecin Landscape Park . Szczecin is adjacent to the town of Police and is the urban centre of the Szczecin agglomeration , an extended metropolitan area that includes communities in

22410-499: The start of the Second World War the family fled Paris, while Döblin's manuscripts were stored in the basement of the Sorbonne . Between the start of the war in 1939 and the German occupation of France in 1940, Döblin worked for the French ministry of information, writing counter-propaganda texts against Nazi Germany with a group of French Germanists and journalists, as well as artists like Frans Masereel . In 1940, aged 62, Döblin

22576-521: The struggle between the sexes, war and violence, and religion, among others. Döblin wrote the novel between August 1945 and October 1946, although it was not published until a decade later. Upon its 1956 release by the East Berlin publishing house Rütten & Loening, the novel was well received. The reference to Hamlet in the German title was likely motivated by Döblin's reading of Sigmund Freud 's interpretation of Shakespeare 's Hamlet . Döblin

22742-444: The tension between Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor and his general, Albrecht von Wallenstein ; Wallenstein represents a new type of warfare characterized by ruthless Realpolitik and capitalist expansion while Ferdinand becomes increasingly overwhelmed by the course of events and gradually retreats from politics altogether. Döblin's approach to narrating the war differed from prevailing historiography in that, rather than interpreting

22908-406: The third-largest German city by area, after Berlin and Hamburg. As the war started, the number of non-Germans in the city increased as slave workers were brought in. The first transports came in 1939 from Bydgoszcz , Toruń and Łódź . They were mainly used in a synthetic silk factory near Stettin. The next wave of slave workers was brought in 1940, in addition to PoWs who were used for work in

23074-561: The time, which was limited to corporal punishment and learning by rote. Mauthner wanted to become a writer; his father wanted him to become a merchant. They agreed that he would study jurisprudence at Charles University in Prague. Mauthner studied jurisprudence from 1869 to 1873. At the university, Mauthner attended lectures in philosophy, music, physics, art history, medicine and theology. He read Arthur Schopenhauer and Ernst Mach , under whom he also attended lectures. Mauthner passed

23240-550: The translation of the city's Slavic name (assuming derivation No. 2 for that). The recorded history of Szczecin began in the eighth century, when Vikings and West Slavs settled in Pomerania . The West Slavs, or Lechites , erected a new stronghold on the site of the modern castle . Since the 9th century, the stronghold was fortified and expanded toward the Oder bank . Mieszko I of Poland took control of Pomerania during

23406-507: The war but did not feel at home in postwar Germany's conservative cultural climate and returned to France. His final years were marked by poor health and financial difficulties, and his literary work was met with relative neglect. Despite the canonic status of Berlin Alexanderplatz , Döblin is often characterized as an under-recognized or even as a forgotten author; while his work has received increasing critical attention (mostly in German) over

23572-459: The war, he placed the importance of Germany's military success above any philosophy. His political commitment disturbed his friends, especially Gustav Landauer. During the last years of his life, he revised the Dictionary in parallel with his work on the history of atheism . From 1920 to 1923, Der Atheismus und seine Geschichte im Abendlande appeared in four volumes. Mauthner died at age 74 on 29 June 1923. Hedwig Mauthner continued to live in

23738-715: The war. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, a street was named after Golisz. According to German historian Jan Musekamp, the activities of the Polish pre-war organizations were exaggerated after World War II for propaganda purposes. During World War II , Stettin was the base for the German 2nd Motorised Infantry Division , which cut across the Polish Corridor and was later used in 1940 as an embarkation point for Operation Weserübung , Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway . On 15 October 1939, neighbouring municipalities were joined to Stettin, creating Groß-Stettin, with about 380,000 inhabitants, in 1940. The city had become

23904-526: The winter semester of 1904–1905 at the Freiburg psychiatric clinic. His dissertation, completed in April 1905, was published that year by Berlin's Klett Verlag. He applied for assistantships in Berlin and in Stettin, where he was apparently turned down on account of his Jewish origins, before taking a short-lived position as assistant doctor at a regional asylum in Regensburg . On 15 October 1906 he took up

24070-542: The words of language is nothing other than the memory of its use. He argues that the meaning of language has to do with its use, similar to Wittgenstein. Mauthner intends to show that an abstract language consisting of grammatical rules and vocabulary is an artificial abstraction that negates psychological reality. Language is rooted in sensory experience. The deception that words refer to an extra-linguistic reality particularly affects philosophy, which he criticises as being metaphysically charged by historic traditions: "I live by

24236-495: The work of Jorge Luis Borges , Samuel Beckett and James Joyce . Today, Mauthner's philosophy is mainly addressed in relation to Wittgenstein. Throughout his life, Mauthner himself was unhappy about the lack of response to his work. The lack of response, however, refers primarily to academic philosophy, which did not react to Mauthner. The Contributions to a Critique of Language sold well and were well reviewed in newspapers. Mathematician Felix Hausdorff , for example, wrote

24402-563: The world as it actually is. Mauthner writes: "The words of language are ultimately unfit for penetrating into the essence of reality, because words are only memory-indices for the sensations of our senses and because these senses are contingent senses, which truly experience nothing more of reality than a spider does of the palace in whose oriel arbour it has spun its web. Thus mankind must quietly despair of ever knowing reality." This scepticism concerns language only as an instrument of knowledge. The poetic and communicative function of language

24568-611: Was Kazimierz Pruszak, director of the Gollnow industrial works and a Polish patriot, who predicted the eventual "return" of Szczecin to Poland. During the interwar period , Stettin was Weimar Germany 's largest port on the Baltic Sea, and her third-largest port after Hamburg and Bremen . Cars of the Stoewer automobile company were produced in Stettin from 1899 to 1945. By 1939, the Reichsautobahn Berlin –Stettin

24734-429: Was a literary breakthrough for Döblin, earning him literary acclaim, public recognition, and the prestigious Fontane Prize. He began writing Wadzeks Kampf mit der Dampfturbine ( Wadzek's Struggle with the Steam Turbine ) the following year, completing it by December 1914 although it was not published until 1918. To avoid conscription, Döblin volunteered in December 1914 and was posted to Saargemünd (Sarreguemines) as

24900-541: Was a private printing of 250 copies of the Nocturno episode from November 1918 . Döblin was embittered by his isolation and setbacks in exile, drawing a strong distinction between his own situation and that of more successful writers less oppressed by material concerns, such as Lion Feuchtwanger and Thomas Mann. In honor of his 65th birthday, Helene Weigel organized a party on 14 August 1943 in Santa Monica. In attendance were Thomas Mann, Franz Werfel , Lion Feuchtwanger, and Bertolt Brecht, among others. Heinrich Mann gave

25066-422: Was able to use the university library at Heidelberg during his convalescence in April and May to continue researching the Thirty Years' War. Back in Saargemünd he came into conflict with his superiors due to the poor treatment of the patients; on 2 August 1917 he was transferred to Hagenau (Haguenau) in Alsace , where the library of nearby Strassbourg helped complete Wallenstein by the beginning of 1919. At

25232-504: Was again uprooted by the German invasion of France, and spent weeks in a refugee camp in Mende . During this time, he began attending mass at the cathedral in Mende, taking a turn towards Christianity that would culminate in his religious conversion the following year. On 3 September 1940, Alfred, Erna, and Stefan boarded the Nea Hellas in Lisbon, reaching New York six days later; in October they moved to Los Angeles. Döblin worked briefly for Metro Goldwyn Mayer writing screenplays for $ 100

25398-413: Was allied to and occupied by the Swedish Empire , which managed to keep the western parts of Pomerania after the death of Bogislaw   XIV in 1637. From the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Stettin became the Capital of Swedish Pomerania. Stettin was turned into a major Swedish fortress, which was repeatedly besieged in subsequent wars. The next Treaty of Stettin (1653) did not change this, but due to

25564-498: Was born on 22 November 1849 into an assimilated, well-to-do Jewish family from Hořice in Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic). He was born as the fourth of six children of Emmanuel and Amalie Mauthner. The Mauthners were a wealthy Jewish family who did not practise their faith. Mauthner's grandfather was a follower of Frankism . Mauthner describes his father in the autobiography as having "literally grown up without knowledge of any catechism" and his educated mother, who took care of

25730-440: Was born on 27 October 1912, and was baptized a Protestant. Peter later attended Schule am Meer , where he was registered as such. During his studies in Berlin, Döblin had written his second novel, Der Schwarze Vorhang ( The Black Curtain ). The novel portrays the developing sexuality of its protagonist, Johannes, and explores the themes of love, hate, and sadism; in its use of literary montage, The Black Curtain already presages

25896-432: Was completed. Stettin played a major role as an entrepôt in the development of the Scottish herring trade with the Continent, peaking at an annual export of more than 400,000 barrels in 1885, 1894 and 1898. Trade flourished until the outbreak of the First World War and resumed on a reduced scale during the years between the wars. In the March 1933 German elections to the Reichstag, the Nazis and German nationalists from

26062-589: Was favorably received by critics, who praised its detailed and exotic depictions of China. Wang Lun also had an influence on younger German writers, including Lion Feuchtwanger , Anna Seghers , and Bertolt Brecht; for the latter, Wang Lun provided an impulse for the development of the theory of epic theatre . In commercial sales, it is Döblin's most successful novel after Berlin Alexanderplatz . Döblin's 1918 comic novel has been seen, in its experimental narrative technique, its refusal to psychologize its characters, and its depictions of Berlin as modern metropolis, as

26228-561: Was fueled by his sense of isolation and marginalization within the postwar German literary scene. In 1953, Alfred and Erna returned to Paris despite the invitation by Brecht and Johannes R. Becher to settle in East Berlin . His last novel, Hamlet oder Die lange Nacht nimmt ein Ende ( Tales of a Long Night ), was published in 1956, and was favorably received. Döblin's remaining years were marked by poor health (he had Parkinson's disease ) and lengthy stays in multiple clinics and hospitals, including his alma mater , Freiburg University. Through

26394-426: Was in the aftermath of the November Revolution . The years during and immediately after the war also marked Döblin's growing politicization; although he never joined a party he identified with the political left. During this time Döblin wrote a number of satirical and polemical political essays under the pseudonym "Linke Poot," a dialectical variation of "Linke Pfote" (Left Paw), eleven of which were published in 1921 in

26560-399: Was largely rejected among academic circles, which disappointed Mauthner deeply. He suffered from depression and developed a strong dislike of the city life in Berlin and of his journalistic work, which he had always continued to do as a bread-and-butter occupation. He called journalism a "trade with words" ( Worthandel ) and expressed his dissatisfaction several times in letters. In 1905, at

26726-474: Was likely Brecht, who counted Döblin among his significant influences, who introduced him to Erwin Piscator in 1928. At the end of September 1924, he set out on a two-month trip through Poland, subsidized by the Fischer Verlag and prompted in part by the anti-Semitic pogroms in Berlin's Scheunenviertel of 1923, an event that awakened Döblin's interest in Judaism. His description of his travels to Warsaw , Vilnius , Lviv , and Kraków , among other cities,

26892-445: Was published in 1926 by Theodor Kappstein, which is regarded as an uncritical praise by Kühn. With the rise of Nazism, the engagement with the Jewish thinker ends abruptly and Mauthner becomes forgotten. It is, however, undisputed that Mauthner had been well known for his literary, journalistic and philosophical work. Two famous people in the history of philosophy bear witness to this: Karl Popper mentions in his autobiography some of

27058-402: Was published in November 1925 under the title Reise in Polen ( Journey to Poland ). From 1926 to 1927 Döblin worked on his free verse epic Manas , about a figure from Indian mythology, which was published in May 1927. Manas , like his philosophical tract Das Ich über der Natur published the same year, proved to be a failure with the public. Thus despite his continued rise to prominence within

27224-432: Was rebuilt, and the city's industry was expanded. At the same time, Szczecin became a major Polish industrial centre and an important seaport (particularly for Silesian coal) for Poland, Czechoslovakia and East Germany . Cultural expansion was accompanied by a campaign resulting in the "removal of all German traces". In 1946, Winston Churchill prominently mentioned the city in his Iron Curtain speech: "From Stettin in

27390-407: Was shown in Prague and Berlin in 1876. In 1876, at the age of 27, Mauthner moved to Berlin, known on the theatre scene as a critic and author. He chose Berlin and not Vienna because he was enthusiastic about Bismarck and because he did not want to be patronised by his family in Austria. In Berlin, Mauthner worked as a journalist for several newspapers and wrote literary and theatre criticism for

27556-438: Was unable to draw on his earlier success as an author, yet continued his literary engagement with a series of publications and journals that aimed to rebuild Germany's intellectual and cultural life, reintroducing the literature banned by the Nazis and fostering the growth of younger writers. Despite these efforts, Döblin was disappointed by the apparent continuity between the Nazi years and the postwar climate. His growing pessimism

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