Hake Doeblin

8/2/2019 Hake Doeblin

1/23

Urban Paranoia in Alfred Dblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz

Author(s): Sabine HakeReviewed work(s):Source: The German Quarterly, Vol. 67, No. 3, Of Novels and Novellas: Focus on NarrativeProse (Summer, 1994), pp. 347-368Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Association of Teachers of GermanStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/408630 .

Accessed: 15/02/2012 07:15

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Blackwell Publishing andAmerican Association of Teachers of German are collaborating with JSTOR to

digitize, preserve and extend access to The German Quarterly.

http://www.jstor.org
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=blackhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=aatghttp://www.jstor.org/stable/408630?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/408630?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=aatghttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=black


2/23

SABINE AKEUniversity of Pittsburgh

Urban Paranoia in Alfred Doblin'sBerlin Alexanderplatz

In an unpublished prologueto BerlinAlexanderplatz,Alfred Doblin makes thefollowing distinction:"Esgibt zwei Wegeauf dieserWelt:einensichtbarenundeinenunsichtbaren"Prangel26).1It is primarilythroughvisual and aural perception--dis-tinctly human faculties, in other words--that Doblin's most famous work recon-structs themetropolisas theproduction iteof the modernmass individualor,to use amore accurate term, the post-humanistsubject.2Traditionaloppositionsdissolve nits presence,andjust as Biberkopfcannotbe contained within the dichotomyof in-dividual and society,the theorizingof thecity-text must move beyond the alterna-tives of the city as mise-en-schneand nar-rator/protagonist.Throughthe metaphorof the body,the city becomes accessible tothe formal strategies of montage, and therecourseto myth makes possiblea criticalsimulation of modernity. The followingreadingseeks to analyze this collapsingofopposites,andtorevealthe urbanas a con-struction that needs an Other not only inorder to developits characteristics,but tobecome a visual, narrative, and criticalagency n the firstplace.Theurban,Imain-tain, generates the irreconcilable differ-ences--organism vs. machine, myth vs.modernity-that it erases in the very mo-ment ofself-engendering.By constructinga new subjectivityout-side the oedipal mold, Berlin Alexander-platz abandons the projectofnarration orthe simulationofurbanexperience hroughvisual and aural perception.Tobe under-stood not in the Benjaminiansense of Er-

fahrung, lived experience,but in the per-ceptionalcontextofErlebnis,experience nDoblinis a highly physical process.Thus,the simulation of the urban takes placethrough the protagonist's paranoid con-sciousness andturnshis body ntoabattle-ground of modernity.Urbanparanoiadis-solves the boundaries that protect thebourgeois ndividual from outsidestimuli,and replaces the mechanisms of divisionwith a more volatile system of projectionsand identifications.CallingDoblin'snovela paranoidtext, however,would only im-pose another totalizing structure onto aconglomerate of discourses characterizedpreciselybya lackofintegration.Forwhilethe city passages document he conflation,if not confusion,of perceptionand urbanreality,the narrative resists the decenter-ing forces of the metropolisby turningtheaesthetics of fragmentation nto a tool forreproducing otality on a higherlevel. Thenarratoruses hedisintegrationofthemainprotagonistto exercise his own degree ofauthority and controLConsequently,theparanoia that organizes the urban textmust be examined on two levels: as a de-limiting and scramblingof discoursesandas a disruptiveforcewithin the narrativethat needs to be contained.Here,Doblin'scriticalwritingsonurbanismand the mod-em individualoffera usefulreferencepointfor mappingthis complicateddynamicofresistanceandsurrender,and for inkingitto psychoanalytic theories of the subjectthat find their most radicalarticulation nDeleuze and Guattari'swritings on para-noia. Inaddition, heirconceptualization f

The GermanQuarterly 67.3 (Summer 1994) 347


3/23

348 THE GERMANQUARTERLY Summer1994the rhizome will be used as a nonlinear,nonhierarchicalmodel for walking in thecity andwritingthe text ofthe urban.

However,any study of the textual ar-ticulationsof urbansubjectivityneedsto beprecededbya morebasic nvestigation ntowhether BerlinAlexanderplatzrepresentsa citynovel--or aBerlinnovel, orthatmat-ter-in the traditional sense and, if not,how the city defies narratabilityand howDoblin'sliterary simulation of the urbanthreatens existing models of repre-sentation. From the beginning,his novelwas perceivedas a challengeto the narra-tive project tself. Contemporary eviewerspraisedthe workas the first novelin whichBerlinappearedat onceas the narratorandthe subjectofnarration.The remarkbyonecontemporary reviewer that "Alexander-platz ist ebenso sehr eine steinerne wieseelische Landschaft"quotedin Schusterand Bode238) describes his doubleprovo-cation with all its hidden implications.While differingin their evaluation of thenovel'sformalqualities,andwhilearguingaboutits politicalmessage,mostreviewersagreed that BerlinAlexanderplatzcontin-ued the tradition of the great 19th-centurycity novel (Dickens,Balzac)and shouldbegroupedwith other modernist reconstruc-tions of the city like James Joyce'sUlysses(1922) or John Dos Passos's ManhattanTransfer 1925). Joyce was called a majorsource ofinspirationforD6blin'sstream ofconsciousness, whereas Don Passos andDoblin nvitedcomparisons ecauseoftheirexperiments with simultaneity.3Yet, nomatter whether criticswelcomedDoblin'suse ofmontageas innovativeorrejectedhisdescription of the neighborhood aroundAlexanderplatzas tendentious,the urbantext was readwithin the frameworkofrep-resentability,with the actualcityas theul-timate standard of judgment. No matterwhether montage was praised as anexpres-sion of urban chaos, or seen as part of anextended system of correspondences, Ber-lin provided the reference point throughwhich the crisis of the novel could suppos-

edly be articulated and overcome.In allcases, the fascinationwith the colorfulmi-lieu andthe praisefor the formalsolutionsdistracted rom he moredisquieting possi-bility that the representationof the citycould no longer be accomplishedwithin amodernistframework, hat the experienceof the urban had to be theorizedoutside ofrepresentationalcategories.Not surprisingly, wo contradictoryas-sumptions dominate the critical writingsonBerlinAlexanderplatzs acitynovel: heassumptionthat Doblin remains commit-ted to mimeticrepresentation,despite orbecauseofhis relianceonmontage,andtheassumptionthat the citymust be readas ametaphor of modernity, n spite of his at-tentionto localcolor.Accordingly,omecrit-ics have focusedonthe portrayalofthe citywithoutacknowledgingitsphantasmagoricquality, while others have discussed itsmetaphorical tatus withouttakingintoac-countthe specificityoflocations.Often,theequationof the big city with crisis and de-clinehas more to dowith antiurbanpreju-dicesthan withcriticalastuteness. Atothertimes,thecityis treatedas anagentofsocialchange, and associated with terms likealienation, fragmentation, and de-indi-vidualization.Such approaches end to re-duce the complexityofurban phenomenato socialexplanations,and preventan un-derstanding of the dynamicbetween op-pressionandliberationthat makes the en-counterwith the city such an exhilaratingexperience.4Byconflating ocial andarchi-tectonicspace,andby translatingthe vari-ousaspectsoftheurban ntothemetaphys-ics of the self and the pathology of masssociety, hey oftenendupreadingthe novelagainst the grainof its ownradicality.Torecognize his processofsedimenta-tion in the criticalreceptionof the work iscrucial for an understandingof the verysimilar process of sedimentation in thewriting of the urban text itself. Already theopposition set up in the novel's full title be-tween the description ofaplace--the centerof the old eastern part of the city, a subway


4/23

HAKE:Doblin 349station under construction-and the storyof the main protagonist-the former ce-ment workerand pimpFranzBiberkopf--establishes a structural relationshipandan interpretative ramework orthe narra-tive. On the one hand, the almost deadlyfight between city and protagonist thatgivesthe novel its three-partstructure,andcreates a densenetworkofleitmotifs,sum-mons for one last time the main elementsof bourgeois individualism, but quicklymoveson todemonstrate he failureoftheseoppositional categories in confrontationwith a more diffuse and dispersedfield offorces. On the otherhand, the subtitle "DieGeschichte vom Franz Biberkopf"-pro-posedby the publisherto make the novel'stheme more accessible-imposes a linearorderon the spatial coordinatesof"BerlinAlexanderplatz"and replaces its multi-plicity of relations with the oppositionalstructureof the traditionalepic.That thisopposition s put intocrisisand,ultimately,dissolvedhas been pointedout in morere-cent contributions hat radicallychallengethe narratabilityof the city within a mod-ernist framework Scherpe)orrelyonpost-structuralist definitions of subjectivity(Freisfeld)andtextuality(Jlihner) o intro-ducemost suitablecategoriesofinterpreta-tion such as dissemination and decenter-ing. Questioningthe distinctionsbetweenperceptionandrealityandbetweeninteriorand exterior space, post-structuralistthoughthas thus openedup a spacefor in-terpretations n whichsubjectivityand ur-banityneed nolongerbe seen as antagonis-tic and mutuallyexclusive.These conflictingreadings draw atten-tion to the instability of discourses pro-ducedby,and attributedto, the metropolisandbringintofocusthe contested status ofexperience in modem city narratives. Inworks like Berlin Alexanderplatz,wherethe complexity of urban life has explodedpoetic convention and severed all ties to theliterary past, the city stakes its claims as atopos without clearly defined boundariesand with uncertain epistemological status.

Involved n the reconstructionofa specificplace and socialenvironment,the modemcity novel approaches he projectofrepre-sentation by means of a strugglebetweenindividualand city, yet does no longerbe-lieve in the conceptof struggle or the pos-sibility of representation.It takes part inthe negotiationofpower,definingits liter-arymeansin accordancewith,orresistanceto, dominantpractices,but fails to producea meta-discoursethat would salvage theprojecton a higher plane. Such constella-tionsimplicate hecitynovel(and ts critics)in the binarycategories hat produce heseaporias n the firstplace:hencemysugges-tion to replacethe term 'city'with that of'urbanism'or'theurban'-terms whichre-flect more accuratelythe delimitingexpe-rienceofmodernity.Recognizing his insta-bility within the urban is essential for areassessment of the relationshipbetweenurbanismandmontage.As the mostpalpa-ble sedimentationof the urbanin the textand its textures,montagehas to be evalu-ated against the backdropofthat whichitobliteratesand preserves:the discourse ofunity associatedwith the city as organism.For the same reasons, the affinities withthefragmentneed toberelated otheurbanas the construction site of post-humanistconsciousness. The shift from representa-tion to experienceas the main criticalcate-gorythus makesmontagean integralpartof the urban experience, rather than ofspecificformal strategies, and it helps toovercome he artificialseparationbetweenthe real andthe imaginary hat definesthecity novel in the traditionalsense.Psychoanalytictheories of the subjectprovidethe means to examine the psychicagencies governing desire, and to shedsomelight onDoblin'ssimulationofurbanexperience and his theorizing of modernsubjectivity.His writingsbear an uncannyresemblance to Freud's definition of para-noia and its reconceptualization by GillesDeleuze and Felix Guattari in Anti-Oedi-pus and A Thousand Plateaus. DefyingOedipus in a no less spectacular way,


5/23

350 THE GERMANQUARTERLY Summer1994Doblin'snovel narrates the makingof thedecenteredsubjectthroughthe figure ofasocial outsiderand his decidedlyunsenti-mentaleducation,and it reproducesheur-ban experienceprecisely n the voidleftbythe failure ofrepresentation.As is the casein paranoia,writingthe urbanbringsforthits own formationsofresistance anddenial.The images ofthe city emulatethe organicin orderto simulatea unity that nolongerexists, and mobilizemythologyto reclaimits place in historywithouthaving any re-courseto it. Traditionalnarrativepositionsare abandonedunder the influenceof thebig city. But at the same time, the urbantext seemstoreintroducenarrativeauthor-ity through a metaphysicof the bodythatunites individual and societyin the organ-ism of the archaic collective. The oceanicfeelingofdelimitationand the morefright-ening experienceof disorientation demar-cate the area from which the new urbantext emerges.It is heldinsuspensionbythetension betweenthe symptomsofparanoiathat eruptin the novel'sextendedcity pas-sages andthevestigesofmythologygraftedonto the projectof modernityand alignedwith a moreprecariouskind of individual-ism.Ifone wantedtodescribe heemergenceof the urban subject in psychoanalyticterms,onewouldhave tospeakofagradualdismantlingof the oedipalstructureand itsreplacementby an all-encompassing,buthighly volatile,narcissisticcomplex.Its ef-fect can be measured by the flights intoparanoia through which the main pro-tagonist triestoresist this process, herebyactuallyaccelerating t. In"PsychoanalyticNotes onan AutobiographicalAccountofaCase of Paranoia,"the famous Schrebercase, Freud defines paranoia as a distur-bance in the movement romautoeroticismto objectchoice (1974, 12: 14-78). Once adrive cannotbe integratedproperly,ibidois withdrawn from the loved object, result-ing in repression, but also paving the wayfor the return of the repressed-but now,as an impulse from the outside. Projection,

in short,helps tojustify the originalemo-tional investment. But unlike neurosis,paranoiarefusestogiveup desire. Andun-likehysteria,which reliesoncondensation,paranoiaadvances throughdissectionsor,rather, the disseminating of all existingidentifications.Ultimately, its formationsoffantasy,delirium,andmadness arenoth-ingbut a processofreturning,ofrepeating,ofrepresenting.Theimportanceofparanoiaformodernsubjectivityhas been argued by Deleuzeand Guattari n theirprojecton schizoanal-ysis that started with Anti-Oedipus,butthat might have foundliterary precursorsnot only in frequentlymentionedauthorslikeKleistandKafka,but in Doblinas wellDeleuze and Guattari describehow para-noia challenges notions such as identity,subject-object, rexperienceand, in so do-ing, providesan alternativemodelofwrit-ing acrossboundaries.Questioning ts uni-versalvalidity, he criticsofpsychoanalysislink the Oedipuscomplex o the repressionof what they call desiring-machines.Theschizophrenic,by experiencingnature as aproduction,draws attentiontothe factthat"everythingis production: production ofproductions, factionsandofpassions;pro-ductionsofrecordingprocesses,ofdistribu-tions and of co-ordinates that serve aspoints of reference; productions of con-sumptions, of sensual pleasures, of anxi-eties, and of pain"(Deleuzeand Guattari1983,4). In the placeofa falseman-naturedichotomy,Deleuze andGuattariintroducereal and imaginarymachines that engagein endless couplinganduncoupling.Thesedesiring-machinescan best be studied inthe moment of breakdown,collapse,mal-functioning.Tracesof such decidedlyanti-humanist thinking are alreadypresent inDiiblin'swritings on the philosophyof na-ture.Despitethe existentialistterminology,and despite the assumption ofafundamen-tal harmony between self and world, histhoughts on identity formation fall into theabyss of their own desire for a new mythol-ogy and give birth to visions of mechaniza-


6/23

HAKE:Diblin 351tionthat, in manyways, prefigureDeleuzeandGuattari'sdesiring-machines.Withouta center,Doblin'scitybody suddenlyturnsinto a machine or,rather,a conglomerateof machines. This is how he describes"die-ses wiste Durcheinander von Organen"which make up the human body:"Es istfabelhaft, womit dieserApparatversehenist. Es ist eine ganze Fabrik, eine Uber-fabrik,ein Brutschrank,einAutomat,eineSerie von Automaten,ein Konzern.In wasfir eine Gesellschaft bin ich geraten"(Doblin 1964, 20). But just as Biberkopfsinitial encounter with Berlin representsless an example of victimization than ofwillful resistance-hubris, in classicalterms--the equationof man and machineimplies a submissionto the machineaes-thetics that is bothfrighteningand liberat-ing.Ofgreatest significanceto the practiceofwriting,the discourseofsubjectivityandofwritingas discoursecometogether n theimage of the rhizome,defined in botanicalterms as a "somewhat longateandusuallyhorizontalsubterraneanplantstemthat isoftenthickenedby depositsofreservefoodmaterial,producesshoots aboveand rootsbelow,andis distinguishedfroma true rootin possessing buds, nodes, and usuallyscalelike eaves" Webster'sDictionary).herhizome demonstrates a new strategy oftextual and discursiveadvancement, ink-ing together Biberkopfs aimless walking,the nonlinear structure of the narrative,and the introductionof differentvoices ntothecitytext. Itsvariousaspectscanbeusedto outline a model of the urban that pre-ciselydefies traditionalcategories:hroughtherejectionoflinearity,hierarchy, nduni-formity; he insistenceondiversityandhet-erogeneity;and theattentiontoprocessandchange.Thus,as away ofbeginning again),andbefore identifying some of the "paranoid"structures in Doblin's philosophy of nature,I take Deleuze and Guattari's observationto heart that a "schizophrenicout for a walkis a better model than a neurotic lying on

the analyst's couch"(1983, 2)-and whowouldbe a betterwitness to the enormousproductivityofparanoia(orschizophrenia,as it is also called)than FranzBiberkopf?So, without furtherado, let us followhimonhis walksthroughBerlinAlexanderplatzand witness how another kind of urbantext-the text ofurbanparanoia-is beingwritten on the ruins of the old narrativeproject.Doblin'snovel opens onto two re-curringimages, the falling roofs and thepiledriver, hat becomepartof thecitybodythrough their ability to incorporateandspread desire across the textual surface.Like leitmotifs, these moving objectspro-vide points of intersection between storyline and narrativespaceand translate thebiographyof Franz Biberkopf nto the ur-bangeographyof Berlin.Each is associatedwith a particularsense: the roof,with thesense ofvision,and the piledriver,with thesense ofhearing.It is the ancientdiscourseof biomorphismnow adapted to the worldof desiring-machines hat, by establishinga connectionbetween houses and humanbodies, and by equating the roofwith thehead, makes the falling roofsan indicatorofBiberkopfsstrugglefor survivalandself-determination.5For the same reasons, thepile driverbecomesthe city'sheart,withitsrhythmicalpoundinga constant reminderof the repressedurges under the smoothexterior of social convention.Throughthejuxtaposition of rooftopsand pile driver,avertical structure is established that lo-cates the city'svital centerunderground-subterranean as well as subconscious-and makes the subway construction onAlexanderplatz he site of a perpetualin-vasion,unearthing,violation. It is intothisreal andimaginary spacethat the destabi-lizingforcesofdesire and the gaze enter inorder to expand the self and, given theirimplication in the crisis of urban repre-sentation, to accelerate the metaphoricalcircle of city as bodyas city,until it turnsinto its opposite: the city as montage, as-semblage, and, to use the term introducedby Deleuze and Guattari, as desiring-ma-


7/23

352 THE GERMANQUARTERLY Summer1994chine.All these destabilizingmoves--fromperception o delusion,fromdescription osimulation--cometogetherin severallongexplorations of Alexanderplatz, whichthrough the discourse, quite literally, ofwalkingis conqueredandtransformedntoa constructionsite of the post-humanistsubject.Thefallingroofsappear orthefirsttimewhen FranzBiberkopfleaves ail andfindshimself confronted with a very changedcity:"UndDaicherwarenauf denHausern,die schwebten auf den Hausern, seineAugenirrten nach oben:wenn die Dichernur nicht abrutschten, aber die Haiuserstandengerade"(Doblin 961, 15;hereafterBA).From then on,his relationship oBer-lin vacillates between identificationwiththe city's strength and projection of hisanxieties onto the urbanlandscape.Whilethe memory of past traumas forces theman'sglanceupward, hereassuringimageof permanencefound in the outsideworldprovidesa temporary upportstructure orhis free-floatingemotions.Yetidentityfor-mation andurbanexperienceare not sim-ply interrelated or interdependent;Doblinsets out to provethat they areconstitutiveof eachother.Theoppositionbetweenchar-acter and milieu or, to phrase it in moreconceptualterms, betweenbiographyandtopography,can no longer be articulatedwithintheconfinesof themoderncitynoveland its radicallydifferentapproach o thespatialityofthesubjectand thesubjectivityof space;the remnants of a vernacular ofconflict and confrontation only highlightthis dilemma. The struggle between cityand main protagonist,so oftenmentionedin the secondary iterature,is invokedbutnotrealized; he oppositional tructurehasbeen replacedby a moreflexible,dynamicconfiguration.6Here, the couplingof cityand self producesan illusionary sense ofcontrol the necessity of which is demon-strated later by the double containment ofthe falling roofs within parentheses in aninner monologue: "KeinHaiusereinstiirzen,kein Dicherrutschen, das liegt hinter uns,

Einmir AllemalHinterUns" BA 126).Be-causethe nonidentityofimageandpercep-tion preventsa realisticor naturalisticre-construction of the city, the stream ofconsciousnessof the main protagonistre-mains suspended between the no-longerandthe not-yet.Andbecausethe urbanex-perience is inextricably linked to theephemeraland the myth of presence,theactual city must disappear in the back-groundin orderto serve as a catalyst andprojection creen.Even Biberkopfs leisurely strollthroughMuinzstraBeails to generate thekindofcriticalorenthusiasticobservationsfound n othercontemporaryBerlinnovels.Instead,buildingsandarchitecturaldetailsare summoned orehearsetheir ownoblit-eration,with Biberkopf urningto increas-inglymore ragileelementssuchaswindowpanes in his desperatesearchforstability:

AberdannglittenseineBlicke m RuckdieHiuserfrontenoch,pr(iften ieHAu-serfronten,ersichertenich,daI3iestill-standenund sichnichtregten, rotzdemeigentlich o ein Hausviele Fensterhatund sich leichtvorniiberbeugenkann.Das kannaufdieDaicheribergehen, ieD cher mit sich ziehen; sie krnnenschwanken.uschwankenonnen iean-fangen,zu schaukeln, uschiitteln.Rut-schenkannen ieDaicher,ieSand chriigherunter, ieeinHutvomKopf.BA140)

This momentbrings he suddenrecognitionthat it is indeedthe look whichstarts theprocessof dissolution,as evidencedby thetransformationfthemostdurablematerial,stone, into the apotheosisof volatilityandimpermanence,sand. Consequently,afterthe second fatal blow, the accident thatleaves Biberkopf rippled, he buildingsnolongerhold andthe soundsofcollapsebringback repressed memories: "DieHijuser, dierutschenden Dicher, einhoherfinsterer Hof,es braust ein Rufwie Donnerhall, juvivaller-allera, so hat es angefangene"BA 246). Hissubsequent denial of the traumatic experi-


8/23

HAKE:Dablin 353ence-"und keiner weiBoder redet davon,da3inzwischendieHiiusergewackelthabenund die Daicherwollten abrutschen" BA250)--may restorethe housesto theirorigi-nalsplendorbut alsodeprives hemofall ifeand turnsthem nto ruins oftheunconscious.WhenBiberkopfater reenters the city,"dieHIiuserstehen still, der Wind weht wo erwill.Eiwarum,eidarum,ei bloBwegendem'Tschingdaradada"BA 320). Onlypiecesofa children'ssong attest to the progressivedissociationof subjectivity.Experiencehasbeen reduced o rhyme,as evidencedbythesuccessionof"still"nd"will,"nd theprom-ise ofdesiresfulfilledhas takenrefuge n anabsurd refrain.Although it is only in thefragmentsof a songthat the oldrulesof de-marcationsurvive,the new urban subjecthas to silencethosemelodies, oo, n order oestablish a clearanddistancedrelationshipto the city-without the trials facedby theideal-typicalbourgeois n gaining self-con-sciousnessandpersonalautonomy, nd out-side of the bouts ofmadnessthroughwhichthe oldBiberkopf riedto hold onto his de-sires. Thus, in a rather ambiguous(andoddlydefeatist)ending,the novel extols thevirtues ofmodesty nstead oftragicheroismandcelebrateshecollective s thetruehomefor the homeless modern individual."DieHiiuserhalten still, die Daicher iegen fest,erkann sichruhigunterihnenbewegen,erbraucht n keinedunklenHofe zukriechen.Ja, dieserMann-wir wollen hn FranzKarlBiberkopfnennen,um ihn von dem erstenzu unterscheiden"(BA 493)--he walksslowly, ookscalmly:he is backagain.A similar leitmotif structure formsaround the pile driverat the constructionsite on Alexanderplatz. Like the fallingroofs,its presenceis mediatedthroughtheperceptions of the main protagonist andserves similar psychicfunctions. It facili-tates the projectionof unconscious drivesonto a violated earth and invites identifica-tion with the urbanrhythmand its hiddenstrength. The hypnoticpounding ofthe piledriver is first heard during the second tra-versing of the city's central square: "Rumm

rumm wuchtet vorAschingerauf demAlexdie Dampframme.Sie ist ein Stock hoch,und die Schienenhaut sie wie nichts in denBoden . . . Rumm rumm haut dieDampframme auf dem Alexanderplatz"(BA 179).The destructionof the city'soldcenter by moderntransportationsystemsaffectseven the functionof language, up-rooting grammaticalconvention and con-fusing communicativepatterns. The omi-nous machine injects its violent rhythminto human relations and occasions a con-jugation of "Ichschlage alles, du schligstalles, erschliigtalles" BA 180).Thisgram-matical exercise, in turn, establishes theconditions for the more disturbing shiftfroman identificationwith violence-"Ichzerschlage alles, du zerschliigst alles, erzerschlAgtalles"(BA 180)-to a projectionof these impulses onto the site of urbanproduction: "Rumm rumm ratscht dieRammenieder, ch schlagealles, nocheineSchiene"(BA 183). The importanceof thepiledriver n thesechangingconfigurationsresides in its being a symbol of life anddeath. On the one hand, it dictates the ur-ban rhythm that, like the beating of theheart, guarantees the survival of, and in,the city.On the otherhand, the pile driverarticulates the all-pervasiveviolence link-ing institutions like the prisonand the in-sane asylum to the highly suggestiveslaughterhousescene.Whilethepiledriver,as imageandobject,visualizes the conflictsin modernlife, its narrativefunction con-sists precisely n unitingthe disparateele-ments of the urban.As figuresofmediation,the pile driverand the falling roofsestablish a system ofuniversal correspondences,dissolvingthedistinctionbetween the individualand themasses and overcoming fragmentationthroughwhat couldeither be dismissed asrepetitioncompulsionorwelcomedas auni-versalism rooted in modern myth. Whenthe pounding of the pile driver is temporar-ily silenced by the winds over Alexander-platz, sound turns into noise, and noise tri-umphs as the original language of human


9/23

354 THE GERMANQUARTERLY Summer1994suffering.A later hallucination of destruc-tion and the brutalityofurbanlife empha-sizes the similaritiesbetweenwind,breath,noise, and voice. It begins with the asser-tion: "DerWind macht nichts weiter alsseine Brust einbil3chenweit" BA388),onlyto deteriorate into mere (erotic)stammer-ing: "Ichbin deine, komm doch,wir sindbaldda, ich bin deine.Wummwumm" BA389). The winds of destructionreturn oncemore in the epiphany of madness duringBiberkopfsstay at the Buch asylum.Ves-tiges ofspeechinitiallysurface nthe equa-tion of wind and breath:"Wummwumm,der Wind macht seine Brust weit, er ziehtdenAtem ein" BA462f.).But soonthe cen-ter of attention shifts from the physicalbody to sound hallucinations that an-nounce the appearanceof the WhoreBaby-lon and complete the man's demontage:"WummSchlag, wumm Schlag, wummSturmbock, wumm Torschlag. Wuchtenund Rammen, Krachen und Schwingen.Wer ist denn dieserverlogeneKerl,FranzBiberkopf (BA466). Thehammeringwithwhichsocietymakes its claims onthe indi-vidual recalls the demands of technologysymbolizedby the pile driverandseals theprotagonist'sauditory entrapment in onefinal outburst of paranoia. With the en-tranceofthe newBiberkopf, owever, hesevoices are silenced, and the constructionsite onAlexanderplatz s againnothingbutamonumenttotechnologicalprogress.Justas the mass individualbecomesa subjectwithout voice, the city turns into a voicewithoutsubject.But as a soundbody, o tospeak, it continues to governthe relation-ships between sender and receiver,lan-guage andnoise;henceBenjamin'snsight-ful characterizationof Dbblin'scity as thenarrator'smegaphone(3:233).Through hese twoleitmotifs, hefallingroofs and the pile driver,Alexanderplatztriumphs as a primal scene of modernity.7The streets that converge on Alexander-platz-Frankfurter Allee, LandsbergerStraBle,TurmstraB3e,Klosterstrafle, Brun-nenstral3e-make it the center of the neigh-

borhoodwhere Biberkopfand his friendslead wretched ives. By setting the storyina predominantlyworking-classneighbor-hood,Doblintakes advantageof his famili-aritywith that milieu.More mportant till,he extends the formalexperimentationofthe modernnovelto a socialgrouptypicallyassociated with realist or naturalist per-spectives.In the characters romthe lum-penproletariat,the crisis ofbourgeoisin-dividualism becomes glaringly obvious,because their belief in self-advancement,detached romanyeconomicalpossibilities,remainsan illusion.Amongthe socialout-casts andforeigners, he qualitiesofurbanmass societycome ntosharper ocus,giventhe absence of any ideological supportstructures. That destabilizingeffectin thechoice of milieu is reduplicated n the pro-visional nature ofthe squareitself. Withinthe new spatial order of WeimarBerlin,Alexanderplatz s marginalizedas a resultof the westwardexpansionof business andcapital, and thereforeunder pressure toadopt otheexigenciesofmodernconsumerculture.Such subtexts make its narrativereconstructioneminently suitable for anexaminationof the processof decenteringand the theorizingofmodernsubjectivity.Through ts doubleroleas center(i.e.,ofthe narrative)andepicenter(i.e.,ofthecity,of bourgeois society),Alexanderplatzalsoforegrounds heproblemofauthorship.As-sumingthepositionofomniscientnarrator,Doblin accompaniesBiberkopfon his ex-cursions into hostile territory and sepa-rates fromthe main protagonistto scruti-nize the squarefroma positionofabsoluteauthority and control. The narrator's al-most ritualistic naming of streets (and,later,of streetcars)conveysa sense of sta-bility and permanence,as does the intro-ductionofclassificatory ystems.While thespatiallayoutof the cityaccommodates heneed for linguistic order, the more volatileworld of commerce and trade produces theopposite effect: it draws attention to thetransitoriness of all urban phenomena.Thus, the stores and restaurants are di-


10/23

HAKE:D6blin 355vided into two categories, those that havesurvived and those that have been sacri-ficed to the demands of urban renewal. Onthe textual surface, nothing distinguishesthe former, which include the well-knownWertheim and Tietz department stores andthe SchloBlbriu and Aschinger restaurants,from the latter, which count amongits casu-alties the popular Berolina statue as wellas the Loeser & Wolff tobacco shop and theJiirgens stationery store. However, the veryfact of their disappearance highlights thecontested nature of public places and theirprecarious position at the intersection ofmodernity and what suddenly returns asmyth, revealing the underside of progress.To what degree the experience of changecalls on the ghosts of antiquity can be seenin the description of the vacant FriedrichHahn department store as

leergemacht, ausgeriumt und ausgewei-det, daBnur die roten Fetzen noch an denSchaufenstern kleben. Ein Miillhaufenliegt vor uns. VonErde bist dugekommen,zu Erde sollst du wieder werden,wir ha-ben gebauetein herrlichesHaus,nun gehthier kein Menschwederrein nochraus. Soist kaputt Rom,Babylon,Ninive, Hanni-bal, Cisar, alles kaputt, oh, denkt daran.Erstens habe ich dazu zu bemerken,daB3man diese St~idtejetztwiederausgrfibt...(BA181f.).The connection, finally,between the modernruins of consumer culture and the catastro-phes of history is established by the mainprotagonist in this scene of willful destruc-tion, the modern city-dwellers, who repre-sent the third element in the geographic andhistorical topography of Alexanderplatz.While the streets and buildings provide thestructure, the people act out the relation-ships between its discrete elements and in-troduce movement and transitoriness intothe static orderof stone. As witnesses of thatdifference, the passers-by are shown in vari-ous activities such as standing, walking,running, strolling on the sidewalk, enteringand exiting stores, glancing into shop win-

dows, crossing the street, riding on the busor streetcar. When depicted from afar, theyappearlike a swarm ofbees, thus also raisingthe specter of mass society. At other times,persons are identified by name and given abiography--with the result that the narra-tive perspective, too, shifts from the collec-tive to the individual and from the public tothe private sphere. Both positions, the aerialview and the close-up (if one wanted to usefilmic terms), associate human beings withprocess, be it through comparisons to nature(e.g., the water metaphors) or through theirsocial attributes (e.g., the markers of classand gender). While the individual descrip-tions suggest an experience of confusingmultitudes, if not ofchaos, the multiperspec-tivism forces the place and its inhabitantsinto a unified whole and confirms diversityas the underlying principle of another kindof urban experience.In that it organizes the disparate ele-ments of the urban, the Alexanderplatzpassage serves as a model for the novel'sown construction. It fulfills this self-reflex-ive function by providing a stand-in for thenarrator in the figure of the traffic police-man who conducts the flows of traffic andpedestrians with confidence. By orchestrat-ing, rather than directing, the stream ofvehicles and pedestrians, his structuringpresence gives meaning to the diversity ofpositions and perspectives:

Die Schupobeherrschtgewaltigden Platz.Sie stehtin mehrerenExemplarenaufdemPlatz. Jedes ExemplarwirftKennerblickenach zwei SeitenundweiBdieVerkehrsre-geln auswendig.Es hat Wickelgamaschenan denBeinen,ein Gummiknfippel iingtihm an der rechten Seite, die Armeschwenkt es horizontalvon Westen nachOsten, da kann Norden, Suiden nichtweiter, und der Osten ergieft sich nachWesten, der Westen nach Osten. DannschaltetsichdasExemplarselbsttiitigum:Der NordenergieBtsich nach Siiden, derSuidennach Norden.Scharfist der Schupoauf Taillegearbeitet Aufseinen erfolgtenRuck laufen iber den Platz in RichtungK6nigstraleetwa 30 privatePersonen,sie


11/23

356 THE GERMANQUARTERLY Summer 1994haltenzumTeilaufderSchutzinsel, inTeilerreichtglatt die Gegenseiteundwandertauf Holz weiter. Ebenso viele haben sichnach Osten aufgemacht,sie sind den an-dernentgegengeschwommen, s ist ihnenebensogegangen,aberkeinem st was pas-siert. (BA 182)Through the depersonalization of theSchupo, the question of authorship is sepa-rated from considerations of intentionalityand expressivity. In their place, a newmodel for organizing disparate materials isintroduced, one that upholds the belief in

centrality but also submits to outside im-pulses with appreciation and self-irony, asis indicated by the reference to the Schupo'sconnoisseur's glance. Accordingly, writingthe urban text requires both a willing sur-render to the heterogeneous material--through montage techniques or stream ofconsciousness-and an ability to organizesheer quantity into meaningful entities.Whereas the Schupo on Alexanderplatzpossesses the skills required for such a task,the challenges to the narrator seem insur-mountable. Referring to the passengers ona streetcar, he expresses doubts: "Was inihnen vorgeht, wer kann das ermitteln, einungeheures Kapitel. Und wenn man estAte, wem diente es? Neue BUcher? Schondie alten gehen nicht" (BA 183). The cityconfronts the modem writer with a doubletask: to explore new subject matter and newformal strategies while at the same timechanging the role of literature in society.Obviously, these difficulties of decipheringthe urban scene are directly related to themarginality of literature in modern masssociety. Even the simplicity of a bus sched-ule no longer gives certainty, and the mys-terious tokens in the passengers' hands nolonger divulge any secrets.The mapping ofAlexanderplatz in whatmust be considered one of the novel's cen-tral chapters is placed between two otherpassages that consciously place the vio-lence ofthe demolition work within the flowofurban life. The first time when Biberkopfsees the square after the release from

prison, he reacts with indifference:Am Alexanderplatz eilen sie den Dammauf flir die Untergrundbahn. Man gehtauf Brettern. Die Elektrischen fahreniiber den Platz die Alexanderstrale her-auf durch die MiinzstraBezum Rosen-thalerTor.Rechts und links sind StraBen.In den Stra3en steht Haus bei Haus. Diesind von Kellerbis zum Boden mit Men-schen voll. Unten sind dieLIiden. BA131)

As the underground construction eliminatesthe foundation on which the narrator nor-mally stands, the structures supporting theurban narrative disappear as well The lackof a center that could establish hierarchiesbetween diverse elements, orcreate relation-ships of cause and effect, forces the narratorto turn to serialization and classification asthe only strategies left to portray the city asa meaningful place.The third traversing of Alexanderplatzconfirms the diagnosis of dissociation, but,in light of Biberkopfs own transformation,the pervasive sense of alienation in the ear-lier examples gives way to an almost franticinsistence on factuality. Hence, the tone isone of descriptive objectivity:

Am Alexanderplatzmurksen und murk-sen sie weiter. In der Konigstra3e EckeNeue FriedrichstraBe ollen sieOiber emSchuhhaus Salamander das Haus abrei-Ben, daneben das brechen sie schon ab.Die Fahrt unter dem StadtbahnbogenAlex wird enorm schwierig: es werdenneue Pfeiler fir die Eisenbahnbrnickein-gebaut;man kann daheruntersehen n ei-nen schonausgemauertenSchacht,wodiePfeiler hre Fii3e hinsetzen.(BA333)

There is a noticeable shift in agency, as ar-ticulated inthe pronoun'sie,"from the listingof commercial buildings in Biberkopfs firstencounter with Alexanderplatz to his finalacknowledgment of the construction work-ers tearing them down. As a comment on theprotagonist's difficult educational journey,that change couldbe interpreted as a sign ofhis gradual acceptance of the workingcollec-


12/23

HAKE:Doblin 357tive;the suddenreferenceo"man"upportssucha claim.

However,Biberkopfsfourthandlast re-turn to Alexanderplatz after his releasefromthe insane asylumtakes placeundervery differentconditions.Now,it is the ob-sessive appeal to a reality freedof experi-ence that keeps the images in check andpreventsanyoneelementfromdominating,be it the poundingof the pile driverorthenamingofstores:

ZuerstderAlex.Dengibtsnochmmer.Zusehen ist an dem nichts, war ja einefurchtbareKaitedenganzenWinter,dahabensie nichtgearbeitetundallesste-hengelassen,wie esstand,diegroieRam-me stehtjetztam Georgenkirchplatz,abuddelnsie den Schutt vom KaufhausHahnaus, viele Schienenhaben sie daeingekloppt,ielleichtwirdseinBahnhof.Undauchsonst st viel los amAlex,aberHauptsache:r ist da. BA494)Once the hallucinationsofmovementhavestopped (i.e., the falling roofs), and thesoundsbeen contained Le., he piledriver),Alexanderplatz olongerfunctions s anin-strument of identityformationor a projec-tion screen forrepresseddesires.Now,thesquare stands out throughan almost un-canny presence-to-itself.The details of ar-chitectureandconstruction re madesuper-fluous by the admission of a ubiquitousuncertainty,and the signs of change arerelativizedby the recognitionof theirulti-mate irrelevance.Sucha conclusion s reas-suring n its acceptanceofthereality princi-ple, but disturbing n its dependenceon aparanoidconsciousnesshatnow,underthedisguise of normalcy, eeks to contain allsignsofinstabilityn afrighteninglyuccess-ful attemptto preventthe disseminationofthe individual'sdesireintothe city's magi-nary spaces.

These, then, are the conditions underwhich the protagonist and the narrator ap-proach the conquest ofBerlin. Both respondto the challenges of the city with movement,but while they frequently walk together,

the narrator clearly has more powerfulmeansat his request.Walking ets thepaceforhis explorationof thecity,structures hemajorevents in the story,and informsnar-rative structuresand motifs. It is alwaysone initialidea that sets thewritingprocessinto motion, Doblin argues, thus usingwalkingandits "stepby step"method as amodel ofnarrativeadvancement.Linearaswell as circular,aimlessas well as purpose-ful, self-determined as well as outer-di-rected,the discourseofwalkingreconcilestheexigenciesofstorytellingwiththelivingconditions in the modernmetropolis.Theoriginal dea forthe novel and its openingchapterrely preciselyon such movements.D6blinnotedduring heearly writingstagethat "in meinem Romanjetzt aus BerlinweiBich zunichst nur:der Mann will ausdem TegelerGefiingnisnach Berlin; alsoflihrt er eben hin; was sich dann ergibt,-dazu bedarfes weitererEinfhille,die wie-derumeine Zeitweitertragen7 1989,215).Elsewhere, he characterizes reading insimilarterms:"DerLeser,allein gelassen,mu8 durch wirkliche Stra3en gehen, indenener sich zu orientieren,zurechtzufin-denhat"(quotedby Miiller-Salget108).InBerlinAlexanderplatz,narratorand readerhave a perfect nstrument in the mainpro-tagonist whose movements through thecityconfirmwalkingas an importantnar-rative strategy, the unifying forcebehindthe appearanceof simultaneityand diver-sity. Some critics have pointed out thatBiberkopfalso uses streetcars and buses(Scholvin98-105). However, his more con-temporary orm oftransportationdoes notintroducea radicallydifferentmodeofper-ception or facilitate differentkinds of en-counters.The fleeting sounds and imagesare in both cases processed through themovements of the narrativeagentwithinasystemthat itself is in constantflux;andinthat shift from sensory perception to freeassociation and critical evaluation, the ur-ban experience materializes. Jaihnerrightly calls walking a form of mediationbetween a subjectivity in crisis and a pow-


13/23

358 THEGERMANQUARTERLY Summer1994erful, devouring city (38-60). To describeBiberkopfasaflaneur,however,wouldmissthe point.He lacksthe sense ofself-aware-ness that keepsthe typicalWeimar laneurin possessionofhimself.Aboveall, the lat-ter rarelysuccumbs o the dangeroflosinghimself intheobjectworldand thephenom-ena of everydaylife. Biberkopfs paranoidconsciousnessforceshim to act out everystage in that process:the impossibilityofremaining a subject in the old sense, hisunwillingnessto surrender o the powerofthe new,and the encounterwith the ener-gies set free in this experienceof radicalchange.The narratorchooses the oppositestrategy:he surrenders to the complexityofthe city andis thereforeable to examinethe diverse urban phenomena outside ofconsiderationsoftime andspaceandin de-fiance of the traditionalrules of narrativecoherence and continuity. What distin-guishes him fromthe flaneuris his abilityto leave the established paths and moveforward,backward,andsideways;tointro-duce perspectives inherent in the objectworld,and not his perception hereof;andto move beyondthe immediacyof the mo-ment in order to explorethose relationsofsimultaneity,continuity,andcause andef-fect that give rise to the particularsensa-tions designatedas urban ormetropolitan.Doblin's kills as acity guideprecedehisrelationshipwith Franz Biberkopf,and ifonewanted tosearchforelements fora the-ory of urbanism and modernsubjectivity,one wouldhave to lookmorecloselyat hisautobiographicaland essayistic writings.They place Berlin Alexanderplatzat thecenter of anextensiveinvolvementwith ur-ban phenomenaandilluminatethe novel'scritical projectfrom the side of personalexperience and philosophical thought.Doblin'sown life offersa first occasion orarticulating discomfortwith the conven-tions that separate the self and the world.Time and again, he presents himself as thequintessential city dweller who depends onthe city for inspiration and resonance. "Esgibt zu sehen, zu hbren, zu riechen" (1986,

219), he exclaims during a walk throughOld Berlin. The negative sides of city lifeonly strengthena relationship hat thrivesontensionsandambivalences.Notsurpris-ingly, D6blin retells his arrival as a ten-year-oldJewishboyfromStettinas abeingborn for the second time or, rather, as agiving birth to himself (1986, 110f.).Thatmomentofself-engenderings inextricablylinked to the characterizationof Berlin asa placeof constantchangeratherthan con-tinuity,of workratherthan leisure, and ofsobrietyrather than imagination. In thiscity where oppositesclash with unprece-dented ntensity,andwheretheintegrationof all elements can no longerbe achieved,Doblin indsaperfect esting ground orhistheoryofepicwritingthat accompanieshisurban writingsfromthe first short pieceson Berlin neighborhoodso the modernistprogram of Berlin Alexanderplatz. Re-sponding oa 1922questionnaireabouttheinfluenceof the city onhis writing,Doblinstates emphaticallythat "dieseErregungder StraBen,Liiden,Wagenist die Hitze,die ich in mich schlagenlassen mu8, wennich arbeite, das heilt: eigentlich immer.Das ist das Benzin, mit dem mein MotorlAuft"(1986, 38).Anotherquestionnaireof1928prompts heconfession hat"ichkannzu Hause, auf derStrale, im Lokal--iiber-all schreiben, aber fast nur in Berlin.Ausw~irtsfiihle ich mich gestort" (1986,179).At times, writingin the city takes onthe characteristicsof a repetitioncompul-sionin whichthe evocationofplacebetraysa never-endingquestfor the cityas the siteof Doblin's immaculate conception as awriter,hencehis admission hat"ob chvonChina, Indien und Gronlandsprach, ichhabeimmervonBerlingesprochen, ondie-sem groBenstarkenund nuichternenBer-lin" (quoted in Meyer 214). The spatialdivisionsthat structureDoblin'srewritingof the city, and are repeated in his doublelife as writer and physician, lay the foun-dation for a new conception ofurban space.While rejecting the realist tradition, hechooses easily identifiable places in order


14/23

HAKE:Doblin 359to establish a clear (and, therefore,negli-gible)point ofreference,and limits his ex-plorationsto the multiethnicandpredomi-nantly working-class quarters aroundAlexanderplatzwherehegrewupandprac-ticed medicine.Such specificitymarks theurbantext as a processofongoingrevisionand reconfiguration hat involves fictionalas well as nonfictionalworks. An earlierBerlin novel, Wadzeks Kampf mit derDampfturbine(1918), already contains adescription of FriedrichstraBlethat, asDollenmayerhas pointedout,uses some ofthemontagetechniquesperfectedn BerlinAlexanderplatz(51). Milieu studies like"Dialog in der MtinzstraB3e"oreshadowBiberkopfsvisit to oneof the street'ssleazymovie theaters after his release fromprison.In early excursionsthrough"AltesBerlin" and the region "Ostlichum denAlexanderplatz," he writer assumes therole of a pedestrian trying to explore"diePeripherie dieses miichtigen Wesens"(1962,60).Like thenovel,theseshortpiecesrely heavily onquotation.Advertisements,store names, book titles in a shop windowmakeup the layersof theurbantext withinthe linear movements imposedby the tra-jectoryofwritingand the act ofwalking.Such continuities must not distractfrom the city's precarious position inDoblin'scriticalwritingsand the resultanttensions in his theorizingofurbansubjec-tivity.Onthe oneside, onefinds unbridledoptimism and great enthusiasm. In "DerGeist des naturalistischen Zeitalters"(1924),Diblin hails thebig cityas the idealsetting forthe spiritualrenewalofmodemrnculture in the age oftechnology:"DerneueGeistmacht dieStiidtezuseinem LeibundInstrument" (1989, 178). The linking of"Leib"nd "Instrument"stablishes a pro-ductiverelationshipbetween the cityas aninstrument of reason and rationality(i.e.,the enlightenment tradition) and the cityas a body for the future collective being (i.e.,the new mythology). Doblin's view of citiesas organs and conglomerations of organsfinds expression, among others, in the ref-

erenceto "dieneuerwecktenSinnesorgane,die keine Grenzefinden" 1989, 182), andit stands behind his repeated attempts tointroducemythologicalelements into themodernwasteland.Just as GeorgSimmel'scity dwellerdepends ncreasinglyon visionas the primarysense, thebigcityfunctionsincreasinglyas a producerand consumerofsensorystimuli As a result ofthis destabi-lizing effect, urban culture changes themost basic categories of critical analysis,includingthe experienceof space and thespaceofexperience:

Die GroBst~idteind ein merkwiirdigerundkraftvollerpparat.n hrenStral3enist fast korperlichu f'ihlender Wirbelvon Antrieben ndSpannungen,en die-se Menschenragen,densie ausstr6menund der sich ihrer bemaichtigt.1989,188f.)The comparison o physiologicalprocessesforegrounds he unique ability of cities tointegrate differencesand embraceperma-nent change. While censorshiplaws con-tinue tobeenforcedn iteratureand he arts,Doblinargues,the big city triumphsas thecensorship-freeoneofmodernculture.Win-dowdisplaysbecomebroadsides, oems,andmanifestos,and theformsofaestheticappre-ciationareredefinedbythe newmass media:

Der unscheinbareHiindlerkann seineWarendekorieren,eleuchten,uggestivanordnen. in Blickzeigt,washiergetrie-benwird:Bediirfnisse efriedigtndneueBediirfnisseeziichtet.ntensivpraktischwirdhier am Menschengearbeitet.DertechnischeGeistgehtdurchdieStm~Ben,agitiertundbildet.1989,189)Doblin'sspiritedcomments on the cityand modem culture remain at odds withhis more subduedpronouncementson thefuture of the novel Concernedabout the

epic tradition, Doblin states rather bluntlythat'"dieStAidtehaben alles zerstbrt"(1962,18) by separating literature and its readersand by leaving writers without a responsi-bility or purpose. These dilemmas of the


15/23

360 THE GERMANQUARTERLY Summer1994modern writer,which are also the dilem-mas of urbanism, explain his changingviews on constructionas a fundamentallymodernist principle.8 The metaphor ofconstructionplays a centralrolein his lit-erary criticismbecause it invites positiveand negative inscriptions and accommo-dates traditional modelsofcompositionaswellas the streamlined ormulasofpopularliterature. Doblin resorts to architecturalmetaphorswheneverhe denouncescertainliterarytrends.Here,construction eferstothe growingmechanization n the literaryprofessionand to its rampant mediocrityandlackofinspiration. n a diatribeagainstcontemporarynovelists, Doblinuses spa-tial and architectural terms--floor plan,scaffolding,reinforcedbeams--to criticizetheir mechanistic approach to plot andcharacterconstruction.The elaborate-but, ultimately, hol-low--building schemes of these so-calledromanciersarejuxtaposedwith the kind ofgroundworkcarriedout, factuallyas wellas symbolically,n the subwayconstructionon Alexanderplatz.Construction irst ap-pears in the 1913 Berlin Programand itsmotto: "Der Erzahlerschlendrianhat imRoman keinen Platz; man erzihlt nicht,sondernbaut"(1989, 121f.).Under the in-fluence of Futurism, Doblindeclares that"derGegenstand des Romans ist die ent-seelteRealitait"1989, 121),andhe cites twotruly modern and collective art forms,ar-chitecture and the cinema, to make hispoint.Aneologism ikeKinoismus,definedas the graspingofmodern life in all its in-tensity and diversity,serves to legitimizehis rejectionofpsychologismandhis insis-tenceondepersonalization,xternalization(Entiuf3erung), nd what is described lse-whereas an imaginationbuilt on facts.Theenthusiasticappealsto architecture ulmi-nate in the statement that "ichbin nichtich, sondern die Stral3e, die Laternen, diesund dies Ereignis, weiter nichts. Das ist es,was ich den steinernen Stil nenne" (1989,122). As the most public of all art forms,architecture inspires a theory of the epic

that reconciles he perspectivesofindivid-ual andcollectiveand reunites the needsofsocietywiththoseof art.Here,constructionremains the trademarkof the true author.A comment like "Stil ist nichts als derHammer, mit dem das Dargestellte aufssachlichsteherausgearbeitetwird" 1989,127) claims constructive labor for tradi-tional notions of authorship. While thiskind of imageryresonates with referencesto sculpture, the epic novel in Doblin'sconception also privileges terms like"schichten, haiufen, wilzen, schieben"(1989,124)that come romcivilrather thanstructuralengineeringandsuggest a moreradical commitmentto formal innovationthan any of the surface renovations per-formedbyhis contemporaries.9The instability of the city as a literarytopicand a model for modern writing di-rectlyaffectsDoblin's heorizingofmodernsubjectivityand,as its mostextreme mani-festation, the paranoidstructure ofurbanexperience.Caughtbetween totalrejectionof bourgeois ndividualismand reaffirma-tion of the individualas part of the urbancollective,he uses formalquestionstoworkout these problems.Montage as the aes-theticizationoffragmentation,and the citybody as the prefigurationof some futuremythologicalunity,mark the two poles inthe simulation of the urban. The notion ofmontage, which has played a central rolein the canonization of Berlin Alexander-platz as a citynovel,belongstothemodern-ist layerin the textual constructionand iscloselyalignedwith thoseaspectsofsubjec-tivitythat are dentifiedasmale:thecontrolexertedby the author as master monteur,thestreamofconsciousnessofthemainpro-tagonist, includinghis violent fantasies ofcontrol; nd, naless obviousway, hefigureofDeath the Reaperwho, throughhis owncutting,illuminatesthe montageprinciplefrom a deadly perspective. Given the influ-ence of Futurist and Dadaist ideas on hisearly work, it is rather surprising thatDoblin never mentioned the term'montage'in conjunction with the novel Montage was


16/23


17/23

362 THE GERMANQUARTERLY Summer1994ofstreets convergingon RosenthalerPlatzalternate with the names of stores andbanks and the renderingof typical urbanscenes.The desiretoexplore hecomplexityof this setting beyond helimitationsofsen-sory experience occasions a remarkableshift fromthe spatialto the temporalwhenthe motives of fourpassengers are exam-ined and the life of one, the fourteen-year-old MaxRiist, is summarized n a few sig-nificant events, includinghis early deathat the age of 55. From the omnipresenceassociatedwith the moving in and out ofparticularurban situations to the kind ofomnipotence-for whatelse is foreshadow-ing?-that defies the laws oftime, this ex-ample shows to what degree montage inBerlinAlexanderplatz s above all a dem-onstrationof narrativeauthorityand con-trol. The urban chaos only highlights thepowerofthe individualandplacesboth,thenarratorand the protagonist, n a positionwhereexperienceis still possible-thoughat immensecost.Whilesimultaneity organ-izes the representationofspace (includingthe auditory space) within the temporalframeworkofthe here and now,contiguityand continuitycreate the progressive, in-ear movements associated with walking.Contiguity prevails whenever physicalspaces are described,as in the transitionfromonestoreortram stopto the next.Bycontrast,continuity brings out the tempo-ralqualitiesassociatedwithhistoryand bi-ography.Based on these three principles,montageleaves behindthe logicofsimula-tion and reconstruction, eeking preciselyin thetotalityofthefragmentahiddenprin-cipleoforder-and new meaning.At first glance, the montage sequencesseem at oddswith the metaphoricaleleva-tion of the city to a living organism,withthe streets representingthe vessels, andAlexanderplatz the heart.12 While mon-tage recalls the visual and literary experi-ments ofDada, the conception of the city asbody continues an important topos of ex-pressionist poetry and prompts, among oth-ers, the transformation of street and pedes-

trians into a gorgeand stream.13Montageimpliesfragmentation, houghwith theul-timate goal of achievingclosure,whereasthe biologistic analogies, despite the ho-listic aura,announce the inevitablebreak-downof the closedsystem.Likeorganscon-tributing to the body's metabolism, thevariousaspectsofthecity-houses, streets,sounds, crowds,traffic--submitto the for-mative powerof the whole in orderto findredemptionin what initially appearslikefragmentation.Like the human body,thethus constitutedcity receives its identityfromatotalizingperspective hatorganizesthe relationshipsbetweenindividualpartsanddetermines heirplacewithinatotalityconceivedoutside of history. Comparisonstothe coralreef,a formationbasedonnatu-ral rather than socially-determinedtruc-tures, bringsDoblinto describethe city as"derKorallenstockftirdas KollektivwesenMensch" 1989, 180). Frequent referencesto the city as a body might even recallphysiocraticmodels that regard society asa corpus/corporation here various socialgroupsfulfilltheirroles based ona naturalselectionprocess.In an essay that revealsaverysimilarapproach ospatialandsocialdistinctions, Berlin neighborhoods areequatedwith specific unctions:"Daballensich, wie Lungenin derBrust, das Gehirnim Schadel,die Zahne in denKiefern,Spe-zialitAten in den einzelnen Quartieren"(1962,229). By facilitatingan extended re-flectiononwholeness and its loss, the bodymetaphorachieves a processualviewofthecity.Againstthe static orderofhouses andstreets, physiologicalprocesseslike incor-poration,assimilation,andtransformationintroduce rafficas a new model for urbanrelationships. Its systems of distributionand circulation structure the narrativefromthe descriptionofBerlin'sbusy trafficsquares to the paranoid episodes sufferedby Franz Biberkopf. Given their modernistalliances, the body metaphors must be seenas part of an oscillation between modernityand myth that literally reproduces the cityimage and its subject on a different level


18/23

HAKE:Dablin 363Relegatingthem to the realmofmythology,and dismissingthem as regressiveorreac-tionary,would mean to ignorethe dynamicat the heart of urban culture.For the dis-course of the city as body articulatesthesame problematicas the discourseof thecity as montage. Where the formerhigh-lights the degree of disintegrationfrom aposition of wholeness, the latter upholdsthe dreamofunity through ts involvementin the projectofconstruction.That is whythe reconciliationof the modem and themythological indsamostfittingexpressionin the constant flow ofvehicles, consumers,and goods-the modernspectacleof com-moditycirculation-as theyenter the city's"weiterKorper"1962, 225), a bodythat--this time, in accordancewith mythologicaltradition-is marked as female.14Doblin'slater writings on the philoso-phy of nature locate the originsof modemrnsubjectivity n the experienceofseparationand otherness,beginning,as in his theoryof the epicwork,with the divisionsinsidethe self.15Throughthe emphasis on uni-versal correspondences,Doblin outlines aprogram that reconciles the organicistmodelwith the aesthetics of the fragmentand provides the necessary link betweenthe montage sequencesand thebodymeta-phors. With the argument that "nurdasGanzehat Gestalt" 1962,227), quantityistranslated into quality and the separateparts are integrated into the whole. Thegestalt guarantees the existence of the col-lective as a unifiedbody and upholds thepromiseoftruth,for"dasWahrekommtnurmassenhaftvor"(1927,239).While he Ber-lin Programemphaticallyrejectsthe cultofthe individual,workslike Das Ich iiberderNatur(1927)andUnserDasein(1933)char-acterizethe relationshipbetweenindivid-ual and collectiveas an ongoingprocessofself-engendering. Both treatises under-score the identity of world and experienceand, in so doing, establish a critical frame-work forBerlin Alexanderplatz that makesthe experience of the city the defining in-fluence in the formation of the post-human-

ist subject.16The process of "animation"(Beseelung) inks the organicand the inor-ganicand createsa worldthat is preservedin the self,while at the same time allowingthe self to identify with the world.Its be-ginnings are locatedin the individual,andits various stages are worth quoting atlength:

DieEntzweiungn derWelt,sichtbar e-wordenn derzwiefachen estaltderPer-sonals Stuick ndGegenstiick erWelt.DiePerson eigtdeutlichdieseDoppelna-tur als Gebilde,dasganzaus derNaturhervorwaichst,us Tier-und Pflanzen-welt,undmit hnenverbundenleibt,undals Erlebnis-,Arbeits-,Einschmelzungs-,Umbildungsapparat.s findeteineHin-undHerbewegungwischenPersonundWeltstatt,so kannsiestattfinden.ndie-serHin-undHerbewegungirddieWeltgebaut.DieseBautfitigkeit ommtnichtzumStillstand, olangedie Person ebt.Ein Spannungsablaufrfolgtdauernd,undso gehtErlebtes,alsoIch, iiberdasMedium ndaus derApparaturerPer-son inWelt,Natur,Geschichteiiber, ndes schwingtWelt,Natur,GeschichtendiePersonunddas Ichzurfick.1964,30)Thedivisionbetweenthebody,which s partof the (animated)objectworld,and the dis-embodied , whichdependson the immedi-acyof the experienced,s overcome hroughaprocessofmediation hatconfirmsthebodyas organismandmakes it partofthe largersocialorganism;his is precisely he experi-ence Biberkopfmakes afterthe three fatalblowsagainsthim.Urban paranoia in Berlin Alexander-platz providesa testing groundforsomeofthese ideas. Moreimportantstill, the pro-cess ofsubjectformationand the theoryofepicwritingcometogether hroughanotherdiscursiveelement: the rhizome,Deleuzeand Guattari'sfavorite metaphor of non-linear, nonhierarchical discourse withoutauthorial center. While the paranoid con-sciousness provides a model through whichthe experience of the city can be theorizedin terms of projections, hallucinations, in-


19/23

364 THEGERMANQUARTERLY Summer1994corporations, ines ofconvergenceand dis-integration, the rhizome introduces thepossibilityofa discourseofthe cityoutsideof the traditionaloppositionsof individualandcollective,perceptionandobjectworld,representationand the real. Likethepara-noid who evades the oedipal triangle, therhizomelacks the linear structureassoci-ated with the arborescentsystem and theradicle system. Throughthe rhizome,theartificial division between the modernistcity montage and the metaphoricsof thecity body is overcome n discursive move-mentsthat,by defyingbinary ogic,providea mapforthe urbantext of BerlinAlexan-derplatz:"Ina book,as in all things, thereare lines of articulation or segmentarity,strata and territories; but also lines offlight, movements of deterritorializationand destratification"1987, 3).Yetwritingthe urban should not be confusedwith theproject of representation. The rhizome,unlike the tree or the radicle,connectsallpoints to each other andproducesa multi-plicity that is not only heterogeneousbutalso lacks the oppositionswhich still ruleother decentered structures. For therhizomeis anti-genealogicaland nonhier-archical.In the placeofstructure, t is con-stituted by lines of intersection,ofconver-gence, ofrupture,andofflight.17Rejectingthe laws of signification,the rhizome textresembles "amap that is always detach-able, connectable, reversible, modifiable,and has multiple entrywaysandexits andits own lines of flight" Deleuzeand Guat-tari 1987, 21). Writing,the authors con-clude,has to do with surveyingand map-ping, not with signification.A return to the Alexanderplatz pas-sages mayhelp summarizethese points.18Traditionally, they have been analyzedthroughterms like crosssection,serializa-tion,simultaneity, tream ofconsciousness,self-reflexivity, and, most, importantly,montage. Its various elements have beenidentified and categorized, and the rela-tionships between urban material and nar-rative voice been described, in terms of the

narrator's hangingrelationto theprotago-nist and the scene of actionandthroughthevariations in the tone and modeof articu-lation.However, he totalityof these effectshas continuously resisted critical evalu-ation. Often described n vague termslikechaosordiversity,heunderlyingprinciplesof encircling,traversing,and invadingre-sist assessments that focus onauthorial n-tentions, formalstrategies, and narrativeeffects.Thefigureofthe rhizome howsthatthe ruptures and incommensurabilitiesmust not necessarilybe regardedas signsof breakdownorfailure.They are, in fact,the traces of an underlying structure ofmapping, they are the productsof an all-encompassingsystem ofproduction.Thus,the notionofparanoiaactuallyuncovers heefficient economy of means behind the"struggle"etween city and main protago-nist. That very different order is es-tablishedthroughthe couplingand uncou-pling of the desiring-machinesand has asits main purposethe continuation of thisprocess.BerlinAlexanderplatz,therefore,is above all about the urban experienceasan encounterwith intermediarystates.Here, Benjamin's characterization ofthe placeis very insightful:

Was st derAlexanderplatznBerlin?Dasist dieStelle,wo seitzweiJahrendiege-waltsamstenVerainderungenorgehen,BaggerundRammenununterbrochennTihtigkeitind,der BodenvonihrenSt&-13en,ondenKolonnenerAutobussendU-Bahnenzittert,tieferals sonstwodieEingeweideerGroBstadt.. sichaufge-tan,undstilleralsanderswo.. sichGe-genden aus den neunziger Jahrengehalten aben.1980,3:233f.)

Translated nto the terms of the rhizome,such a scenariorepresents he convergenceanddisseminationofthe various orces hatenter into the urban experience: not in theform of a forward and backward, or as accel-eration and rtardation, but in the contextof simultaneity, multiplicity, heterogeneity;not through the alternatives of destruction


20/23

HAKE:Doiblin 365or preservation, but with the possibility oftheir accidental coexistence; not merely un-der the rule of terror,but also with curiosityand exhilaration. Hence, it is quite appropri-ate to isolate one particular aspect of the rhi-zome-its being in the middle, betweenthings--to describe the urban experience inBerlin Alexanderplatz. As Deleuze andGuattari note: "Between things does notdesignate a localizable relation going fromone thing to the other and back again, but aperpendicular direction,a transversalmove-ment that sweeps one and the other away"(1987, 25). Whether under the label ofpost-humanist or paranoid consciousness,Doblin's novel simulates precisely such anintermediary state, and that continues to beits most important contribution to the theo-rizing of the urban in the early 20th century.

Notes

1Comparethe introduction to Mario vonBucovich'sphotobookon Berlin,where Doblindeclares that "Berlin st gr6fltenteils unsicht-bar... Nur das Ganzehat ein Gesichtund einenSinn: den einer starkennidchternenmodernenStadt, einer produzierendenMassensiedlung"(1928, viii and x).2"Post-humanist"ubjectrefers to a subjectno longer constituted through the individual-society oppositionand the kind of social con-tract andrationalityoutlinedby the enlighten-ment tradition.In psychoanalytical erms, thepost-humanistsubjectsuggests the dissolutionof the traditionaloedipalstructure and its re-placementby a decenteredsubjectivityconsti-tuted throughnarcissism (ratherthan repres-sion)and the primacyofthe visual (rather hanof language). On the implicationsforarchitec-ture, and the work of Meyerand Hilberseimerin particular,see Hays.3Fora comprehensivedocumentationof thecontemporary reception of Berlin Alexander-platz, including the polemical debates in theLinkskurve,see Prangel53-111.4Thesecondary iteratureon BerlinAlexan-derplatz as a city novel is extensive and in-cludes important contributions by Albrecht

Schone,VolkerKlotz,and HaraldJ?hner.Somecritics see the narrative style as a convincingrepresentation of urban chaos (Martini 358f.;Ziolkowski110f.), while others interpret thenovel's disparate elements as a diversity re-united by andin language(Schine 316). Someemphasize Doblin's double role of detachedmonteur and omniscient narrator n the crea-tion ofthe citytext (Klotz379),while forothersthe city almost tells itself, without the pres-ence of a mediating figure (Schine 323). Forsome, the city functions as a metaphorof lifeitself (Keller145),while othersperceive he cityas a stageforcontemporary vents, thatis, Zeit-geschichte Titche135).Questioning he narra-tabilityof the city,Scherpehas recently arguedthat "Doblin ubstitutes a structural and dis-cursivemethod ofnarratingthe cityfor the old-ermythicnarrativerepresentations"165)thatstill dependon the dramatizationof opposites.Accordingly,orScherpe, t is throughthe fail-ureofnarrationthat the novel draws attentionto the abstraction n modernsociety,and thusconfirms ts modernistagenda.5Keller relates the falling roofs to Biber-kopfs fear of death (146, 203). Klotz links themotif to Biberkopfs lack of orientation andinner balance, thus also emphasizing the ex-changes between inside and outside (400).Freisfeld juxtaposes the vertical movementrepresented by the sliding roofs to the recon-struction ofthe citythroughwalkingand otherhorizontalmovements(166f.).

6Therelationship between BiberkopfandBerlinhasbeen discussed at greatlengthin thecritical literature. Some scholars emphasizethe conflictbetweencityandprotagonist,as ar-ticulated in the threat of depersonalization(Koopmann100), or interpret the individual-collectivecomplexas an unresolvedproblem nDoblin'sentirework(Scherer),while othersseeboth categories as parts of a metaphysicalwhole (Fries 43-45). Focusing on questions ofnarrative,some criticshavetried toavoid theseoppositionsand (followingDoblin'sown com-ments) have likened Biberkopfto a probein-serted in the city's spaces (Klotz 410) or a cen-tral figure reflecting the diverse collagematerial(Miiller-Salget 98).Othershaveusedother distinctions to underscore he actual factof transgression: orinstance, throughthe jux-tapositionofBildungsromanand Gropstadtro-man (Ledanff94-98) or the differentiationbe-


21/23

366 THE GERMANQUARTERLY Summer 1994tween "Leiden n derStadt" withRilke'sMalteas the prototype)andthe Doblinian"Leiden erStadt" Freisfeld6).

7Inmy readingof this passage, I have prof-ited fromthe excellentanalysis byJiihner(66-81).8For nstance, the workon a tunnel linkingBahnhof Zoo and Wittenbergplatz stationsgives rise to an extended reflectionon techno-logical advances in structural engineering,technologyas a new literary topic, and prob-lems of narrative construction(qtd. in Meyer116f.).9Compare he 1929essay "DerBau desepi-schen Werks"that outlines the literary pro-gramofBerlinAlexanderplatzand, in the con-text of my discussion of urban subjectivity,might be of further nterest becauseof its gen-dered conceptionof the writing processand ofmodernist literature in general. Hence thestatement:"DerwirklichProduktiveabermullzwei Schrittetun: ermuflganznahe an die Rea-litiit heran,an ihre Sachlichkeit, hrBlut,ihrenGeruch,and dann hat er die Sache zu durch-

stoflen,das ist seine spezifischeArbeit" 1989,219).10Schwimmerdistinguishes between ana-lytic montage as the presentationof a unifiedevent frommultiple perspectivesandsyntheticmontage as the bringing togetherof disparateelements (89-92).11EkkehardKaemmerlingcomparesBerlinAlexanderplatzto a written film and equatesnarrativestrategies with filmictechniques ikeshot size, pointofview,shot/countershot, slowmotion,and time lapse as well as with variousforms of montage such as contrast and paral-

lelism (185-98). By contrast,Martini finds theinfluence of cinema most pronouncedin thesteady flow of images and the effervescenceofthe street scenes(360).Both takeDoblin's arli-er comments on Kinostil and the ubiquity ofcinemain WeimarBerlin as sufficientproof oran actual relationship of influence betweennoveland cinema.Theiranalysesrelyto a largedegree on film techniques from the classicalnarrative cinema-inflected by the art filmmovements of their times (e.g., neorealisminthe case of Martini)--that were not yet fullydevelopedin the silent Germanfim, while atthe same time ignoringthe considerablediffer-ences between the montagetheories of Griffithand Eisenstein. While the latter uses the colli-

sion of two shots to producespecificcognitiveeffects, the former-and with him, the entiretraditionof continuityediting-seeks to createcontinuity, o gloss over the breaks,to denythepresenceof an author.Certain narrativeposi-tions resemble filmictechniquessuch as pointof view, close-up,or traveling shot, but theirfunctionin the novel is precisely to break theillusion and make self-reflexivecommentsonthe state of narrativein modernity.The equa-tion of filmic and literary montage and thecharacterizationof Dbblin'snarrative style asfilmichas been criticizedbyBayerdorfer 162f.)and Jiihner(141).

12Theanthropomorphicelement is evenmore pronouncedn the descriptionof the Ro-senthaler Platz under the heading"DerRosen-thalerPlatz unterhbilt ich."13Comparean earlier description of the

Friedrichstrafle in WadzeksKampf mit derDampfturbine:"VomMurren dieser Menschenist das TaldieserStra8eerfUillt,on hremwon-nigen StreifenArman Arm,Schulter an Schul-ter. Sie sehen rechts und links in die beschla-genenScheiben, iicheln,eilen. DieHiiuserfron-ten auseinandergerissen, durch Glasplattendurchsichtig gemacht; zwischen den Pfeilernladen die Hiiuser ihren Inhalt auf. Auf denwenigen Mauerrestenzuckengrelle Ankiindi-gungen" 1982,315).14Since woman cannot be exorcised fromthe spaces of modernity, he returns, quite lit-erally,as its underside:as the Whore of Baby-lon,in the mainprotagonist'sdesireto conquerthe (female)body of the city,and throughhisdesire to lose himself in orgasmicor paranoidspasms. The motif of the Whore of Babylon(Revelation 17: 1-6) is introduced as follows:"Undnun komm her, du, komm, ich will diretwas zeigen. Die grof3eHure, die Hure Baby-lon, die da am Wasser sitzt. Und du siehst einWeibsitzen auf einem scharlachfarbenenTier.Das Weib st voll NamenderLiisterungundhat7 Hiiupterund 10 Horner.Es ist bekleidet mitPurpurundScharlachundiibergildet mitGoldund edlen Steinen und Perlen und hat einengoldenen Becher in der Hand. Und an ihrerStirnist geschriebenein Name,ein Geheimnis:die grolleBabylon,die Mutter aller Greuel aufErden. Das Weib hat vom Blut aller Heiligengetrunken.Das Weib st trunkenvom Blut derHeiligen"(BA260).Keller inks the figureto thetheme ofconquestand the struggleofprimeval


22/23

HAKE:Doblin 367evil forces(170-72), whereas Muschgsees heras an embodimentofBiberkopfsmoraldecline(Doblin1961,520).Considerationsofspacepre-vent a furtherdiscussionof this complex,but Iwould tentatively argue that the motif is partof the gendered division between modernistand mythologicalelements.15Someof these ideas are spelledout in the1931 article "DieGesellschaft,das Ich,dasKol-lektivum" 1970, 295-97). The influenceof D&-blin'sphilosophyofnatureonBerlinAlexander-platz and the changes n his views on individualand society have been examined by Schonethroughthe notion of resonance(308,316) andby Koopmann n a more author-oriented naly-sis (85).16Note, or nstance,the descriptionofa busride throughBerlin in Das Ich iiberderNatur(Doblin1927,82f.)whichreads like a pre-studyforBerlinAlexanderplatz.17Here,onemight even want to rethinktheusefulness of theterm'montage'nrelationshipto Berlin Alexanderplatz.Deleuze and Guat-tari'sdefinitionofassemblage(1987,4) orL6vi-Strauss's notion of bricolage in The SavageMind are in manyways better suited to accom-modate the novel'snarrative and libidinaltra-jectoryand accountfor its radical openness tomultiplicityand heterogeneity.18For imilar examples of urban montage,see the descriptionofthe tenementbuildingonLinienstral3e 1961, 132f.) or the LaborCourtin ZimmerstraBe 1961, 337f.).

Works Cited

Anders, Guinther."Der verwiistete Mensch:UberWelt-undSprachlosigkeitn AlfredDS-blinsBerlinAlexanderplatz."estschrift umachtzigsten Geburtstagvon GeorgLukdcs.Ed. FrankBenseler.Neuwied:Luchterhand,1965. 420-42.Bayerdorfer,Hans-Peter."AlfredDoblin:BerlinAlexanderplatz1929)."Deutsche omanedes20. Jahrhunderts:NeueInterpretationen. d.Paul Michael Liitzeler. Konigstein: Athe-

nium, 1983. 148-66.Benjamin, Walter. GesammelteSchriften. 12vols. Ed. Rolf Tiedemann and HermannSchweppenhiiuser. Frankfurt am Main:Suhrkamp,1980.

vonBucovich,Marius.Berlin. PrefacebyAlfredDoblin.Berlin:Albertus,1928.Deleuze, Gilles, and FdlixGuattari.Anti-Oedi-pus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia.Trans.Roger Hurley, Mark Seem, and Helen R.Lane.PrefacebyMichelFoucault.Minneapo-lis: U of MinnesotaP, 1983.. A ThousandPlateaus: CapitalismandSchizophrenia.Trans.and forewordbyBrianMassumi. Minneapolis:U of Minnesota P,1987.

DMblin, lfred.Das Ich iiberderNatur. BerlinmFischer,1927.- Berlin Alexanderplatz.Afterword byWalterMuschg.Olten:Walter,1961.. Die Zeitlupe:KleineProsa. Ed. WalterMuschg.Olten:Walter,1962.. UnserDasein. Ed. WalterMuschg.01-ten:Walter,1964.. Schriften zu Politik und Gesellschaft.Ed. WalterMuschg.Olten:Walter,1970.. WadzeksKampfmit derDampflurbine.Ed.AnthonyW.Riley.Olten:Walter,1982.. KleineSchriften.2 vols.Ed.AnthonyW.Riley.Olten:Walter,1985.-.Schriftenzu Lebenund Werk.Ed.ErichKleinschmidt.Olten:Walter,1986.. Schriftenzu Asthetik,Politik und Lite-ratur.Ed. ErichKleinschmidt.Olten:Walter,1989.Dollenmayer,DavidB. TheBerlin NovelsofAl-fredDoiblin:VWadzek'sattle with theSteamEngine,""BerlinAlexanderplatz, MenWith-out Mercy," nd "November 918."Berkeley:U ofCaliforniaP,1988.Freisfeld, Andreas.Das Leiden an der Stadt:Spuren der Verstidterung n deutschenRo-

manen des 20. Jahrhunderts.Cologne andVienna:Bohlau,1982.Freud,Sigmund.StandardEditionof theCom-pletePsychologicalWorks f SigmundFreud.24 vols.Trans.anded. AlexStrachey.London:TheInstituteofPsycho-Analysis nd the Ho-garthPress, 1953-1974.Fries,MarilynSibley."TheCityas Metaphor orthe HumanCondition:AlfredDoblin'sBerlinAlexanderplatz' (1929)." Modern FictionStudies 24 (1978):41-64.

Hays, Michael. Modernism and the Posthu-manist Subject:TheArchitectureof HannesMeyer ndLudwigHilberseimer.Cambridge:MITPress, 1992.Jiihner,Harald.Erzlihlter,montierter,oufflier-


23/23

368 THE GERMANQUARTERLY Summer1994terText:ZurKonstruktion es "Berlin lexan-derplatz"von Alfred D6blin. FrankfurtamMain:Lang,1984.

Kaemmerling, Ekkehard. "Die filmischeSchreibweise." rangel.Materialien.185-98.Keller, Otto.D6blins Montageromanals EposderModerne" ie StrukturderRomane"Derschwarze Vorhang,"Die drei Spriinge desWang-lun" nd "BerlinAlexanderplatz."Mu-nich:Fink, 1980.. Doblins Berlin AlexanderplatzvDieGropstadt m Spiegel ihrer Diskurse.Bern:Lang,1990.Klotz,Volker.Die eziihlte Stadt:Ein Sujet alsHerausforderung onLesagebis Doblin. Mu-nich:Hanser,1969.Komar,Kathleen."Techniquend Structure nDoblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz." GermanQuarterly44 (1981):318-34.Koopmann,Helmut.Derklassisch-moderne o-man in Deutschland: Thomas Mann--D&-blin--Broch. Stuttgart:Kohlhammer, 983.Kreuzer,Leo.AlfredDiblin:Sein Werk is 1933.Stuttgart:Kohlhammer,1970.Ledanff, Susanne. "Bildungsroman versusGrol3stadtroman."prache im technischen

Zeitalter78 (1981):85-114.Martini,Fritz. Das Wagnisder Sprache:Inter-pretationendeutscherProsavonNietzschebisBenn. Stuttgart:Klett, 1956.Meyer, Jochen, ed. Alfred Diblin 1878-1978.Exhibition Catalogue. Marbach:DeutschesLiteraturarchiv im Schiller-Nationalmu-seum, 1978.Miiller-Salget,Klaus.AlfredDdblin:WerkundEntwicklung.2nd revised and enlarged ed.Bonn:Bouvier,1988.

Prangel, Matthias. ed. Materialien zu AlfredDidblinBerlinAlexanderplatzFrankfurtamMain:Suhrkamp,1975.Rees,J. Philip. "City,Collective,and Individualin Doblin's'BerlinAlexanderplatz'."New er-

man Review2 (1986): 42-54.Scherer,Herbert."The ndividualand the Col-lective in Doblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz."Trans.Peter and MargaretLincoln.CultureandSociety n theWeimarRepublic.Ed.KeithBullivant. Manchester: Manchester UP,1977.56-70.

Scherpe, Klaus. "TheCity as Narrator: TheModern bxt in AlfredDoblin'sBerlin Alex-anderplatz."Trans.Max Reinhartand MarkAnderson.Modernity nd the7hxt.RevisionsofGermanModernism.Ed.AndreasHuyssenand David Bathrick.NewYork:ColumbiaUP1989.162-79.

Scholvin,Ulrike.Diblins Metropolen.Uber ealeund imaginiireStidte und die 7-ravestie erWiinsche.WeinheimandBasel:Beltz, 1985.Schone,Albrecht."AlfredDoblin: Berlin Alex-anderplatz'." er deutscheRoman.VomBa-rock bis zur Gegenwart:Struktur und Ge-schichte.Ed. BennovonWiese.2 vols.Diissel-dorfiBagel, 1965. 2: 291-325.Schuster, Ingrid,and IngridBode, eds. AlfredDuiblinmSpiegelderzeitgenissischenKritik.Bern and Munich:Francke,1973.Schwimmer, Helmut. Alfred D6blin "BerlinAlexanderplatz."Munich:Oldenbourg, 973.Simmel, Georg."DieGroJstfidteund das Gei-stesleben."Die Gropstadt: ahrbuchder Ge-hestiftung.Dresden:von Zahn and Jensch,1903. 185-206.Tebbe,Krista, and HaraldJibhner, ds. Alfred

D6blin zum Beispiel: Stadt und Literatur.Berlin:Elefanten-Presse,1987.Titche, Leon, Jr. "Doblin and Dos Passos:Aspects of the City Novel."ModernFictionStudies 17(1971):123-35.Zimmermann,Ulf. "Benjamin nd'BerlinAlex-anderplatz'." olloquiaGermanica12(1979):256-72.Ziolkowski,Theodore.Dimensionsof the Mod-ernNovel.Princeton:PrincetonUP,1969.

Documents

Hake Doeblin