Döblin, Alfred [key], 1878–1957, German novelist and physician. His experiences as a psychiatrist in the workers' district of Berlin served as the basis for his experimental novel Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929, tr. 1931), in which he applied the techniques of James Joyce's Ulysses to his story of the life of a Berlin worker. Other novels include Die drei Sprünge des Wang-lun [the three leaps of Wang-lun] (1915) and Pardon wird nicht gegeben (1935, tr. Men without Mercy, 1937). Döblin left Germany in 1933, lived in France and the United States, and returned to Germany after World War II.
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