November 1918. A German revolution

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Berlin, Brandenburg Gate,
November 9, 1918

November 1918. A German Revolution is a narrative work in three parts by Alfred Döblin , which was published in four volumes because the author found the middle section too detailed. The cycle of writings was created in the years from 1937 to 1943; it was only published in full in 1978. The subject is the German revolution after the end of the First World War, which lasted from November 1918 to January 1919. The content consists of the real historical processes, some of which are embellished with literature, and a parallel fictional plot about the main character Friedrich Becker, a war-injured and traumatized high school teacher who experiences an existential change during the plot.

November 1918 , during Döblin's emigration, the first volume was written in Paris , the other volumes were written in Los Angeles . While the first volume was able to appear in two exile publishers in 1939, the other three volumes only came out after the Second World War in small numbers and with conditions imposed by the French occupation authorities. A complete edition was only available from the German paperback publisher in 1978 . Only then did a noticeable reception of the narrative set in, which was consistently positive. It was pointed out several times how strongly Döblin's historical interpretations of the November Revolution resembled those of Sebastian Haffner . In both interpretations, leading social democrats, especially Friedrich Ebert , are considered the “traitors” of the revolution.

content

Berlin, Unter den Linden,
November 9, 1918

The novel cycle has the structure of a chronicle throughout. It begins on November 10, 1918, the day after Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed the republic from a window in the Berlin Reichstag building . The political story ends on January 15, 1919 with the murder of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg . Historical figures appear, such as the Social Democrat and later President Friedrich Ebert , but also the American President Woodrow Wilson and the French Marshal Ferdinand Foch as well as the revolutionaries Liebknecht and Luxemburg. The political actions described by the real characters are fundamentally historically guaranteed. At the same time, their appearance and actions are used in the text as "arguments in the historical debate". Although the information is source-based, Döblin's handling of the sources was selective and assimilating. He used those documents and representations from the historiography that confirmed his judgment on the revolution, which had been established before it was written. In individual cases it is not certain whether statements made by the historical figures in quotation marks are actually documented or simply made up. Döblin's judgment is always clear, he portrays Ebert as an actor and a deceiver, as a "preventer" of a radical new beginning. With his "undoubtedly very one-sided negative drawing by Ebert and Philipp Scheidemann", Döblin, according to Gabriele Sander, articulates the deep disappointment he had previously expressed about the German social democracy, which he attributes to the failure of the revolution. In addition, he was of the opinion that the conditions for Hitler's seizure of power and the liquidation of the Weimar Republic had been created in the months of the revolution and its suppression. As early as 1934 he wrote in a letter that Hitler was Noske's continuation .

Intermittently to the historical events, Döblin describes the development of fictional people. The main character of this narrative thread is the classical philologist and teacher, First Lieutenant Friedrich Becker, whose fate with war injuries and emotional trauma is described in the final part up to the late 1920s . In addition to Becker, there are other fictional people who accompany the novel: Lieutenant Maus, friend and comrade Beckers, who ultimately joins the Freikorps , and nurse Hilda, who is first in a relationship with Becker and then marries Maus. Another recurring fictional main character is the poet and playwright Erwin Stauffer, the example of an apolitical escapist existence as a poet.

"Citizens and Soldiers 1918"

“Citizens and Soldiers 1918” is the first part of the novel trilogy. This volume is the most conceptually demanding and the best elaborated of the entire narrative. The action begins on November 10, 1918, one day after the proclamation of the Republic in Berlin. It begins in the periphery of the action, in Alsace . The choice of this region was motivated by Döblin's own experience, who had seen the last months of the First World War there, but also possibly by the fact that he wrote in Paris and thought of a French reading public.

Initially, a broad image of society is drawn that shows a multitude of people and situations. The spectrum ranges from the Strasbourg maid to the French President Poincaré and revolutionary sailors and a counterrevolutionary Prussian lieutenant who shoots a sailor, to the French nationalist Maurice Barrès and German deserters in the Ardennes . It takes time for the main characters Becker, Mouse and Hilde to emerge from the crowd of people described.

The news of the apparently victorious revolution arrives in Alsace as “rumor and myth” from November 10th. It leads to different reactions and uncertainty in everyday life. For some, the news of the revolution triggers celebrations and incites rebellious acts, for others, apocalyptic fears. What is happening in Alsace does not manifest itself as a real revolution, it only shows a political collapse that leads to a change of rule. The French move in, the Germans have to withdraw, long-suppressed resentments against “Reichsdeutsche” are shown. In Strasbourg , the German mayor is exchanged for a French one, who in no time puts the revolutionary sailors in the cold and declares the revolution to be over. The revolutionary sailors of Alsatian origin had rushed by train from Wilhelmshaven to Strasbourg to save Alsace from the French.

On the plot level of the fictional characters from the novel, the seriously wounded Lieutenant Becker, the also wounded Lieutenant Maus and the nurse Hilde leave the Alsatian hospital. This is followed by a long, shared train journey to Berlin. During this train journey, Becker began a profound change towards a religious existence. The mystic Johannes Tauler appears to him on the train , invites him to return and return and prophesies a way through the "Tribulation". Helmuth Kiesel points out that Döblin uses the "name Tauler as it were (also) as a pseudonym for Kierkegaard ", which he had studied in earlier years. That was all the easier because Tauler's and Kierkegaard's tenets of life agreed on important points.

"Betrayed People"

Reich President Friedrich Ebert, who betrays the revolution in Döblin's presentation, in a speech (1919).

"Betrayed People" is the first volume of the second part. With it, the tone and structure of the narrative change. As in Döblin's earlier works (such as Berlin Alexanderplatz ), the larger chapters are preceded by brief summaries, which summarize the content in key words but also represent ironic narrative comments. For example, the preamble to the chapter "Private Revolution" reads:

“Soldiers march, the academy meets, thieves steal, bread and butter cards experience a strange fate, and so everyone does what they can to get over the troubled times. Behind your back, you know you're being sold. It is November 23rd and 24th, 1918. "

And in the prelude to the chapter "Liebknecht's voice about Berlin" it says:

“Karl Liebknecht warns the sailors about the generals and their accomplices. He also doesn't want a Wilson peace because it wouldn't be. That doesn't sound bad to some officers. (...) "
Karl Liebknecht as a speaker at a revolution rally in December 1918 in Berlin's Tiergarten

The scene of the second part is no longer the periphery, but the center of the revolution, the capital Berlin, even if the gaze is directed several times to Strasbourg. The first volume of this second part deals with the 16 days from November 22nd to December 7th, 1918. During this period, after the storming of the police headquarters, the Berlin “Executive Council of Workers and Soldiers' Councils” reached an agreement with the “Council of the People's Representative ”to Friedrich Ebert initially on a cooperative exercise of power. But then it becomes clear that there will be a confrontation between the Council of People's Representatives and the revolutionary forces around Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. In the novel, the three centers of power of the historical situation, the Council of People's Representatives, the General Staff with Paul von Hindenburg and Wilhelm Groener in Kassel and the revolutionary Spartakusbund are presented. In the evenings Ebert's telephone calls to the General Staff via the “secret line 998” are described in detail, which Döblin interprets as Ebert's “betrayal” of the revolution.

There is hardly any development, but strategy and tactics are discussed and preparations are made everywhere. The Social Democrats, led by Ebert, are of the opinion that the revolution has fulfilled its task by creating new state conditions and that a constitution should now be adopted. The more radical socialists, who are now organized in the Spartakusbund and who will found the KPD at the end of the year , believe, however, that the constitutional revolution should be supplemented by a social upheaval, that the revolution must therefore be continued. Lenin is repeatedly mentioned as an exemplary revolutionary. The private stories of the fictional returnees Becker, Maus and Hilde also continue in undramatic search movements. The story of the poet Stauffer is intensified; he first appeared at the end of the first volume under the name "Stauffen".

"Return of the front troops"

Volume 2 of the second part is from December 8th to 14th and has the title "Return of the Front Troops". In this volume, too, the larger chapters are preceded by brief summaries. The first of the volume under the heading "Woodrow Wilson" reads:

"The" Goethebund "and the last President of the Reichstag rise from the residence of the trash can. The council of the spiritual meets and poets sing. But Woodrow Wilson came across the ocean to end the chaos of Europe. "
US President Woodrow Wilson (1919), important figure in the second book of the second part.

Contradicting initiatives continue to emerge from the power centers described in the previous volume. The General Staff in Kassel and the Berlin government are trying to limit the influence of the workers 'and soldiers' councils and to prevent further revolutionary steps towards socialization and demilitarization. Liebknecht continues to prefer a peaceful path to socialism and is urged to take more radical steps by Karl Radek , the emissary of the Russian Bolsheviks . Already in the first volume of the second part it says in the preamble to the chapter "Among German Revolutionaries": "The Russian Radek encounters the peculiar German dubiousness with his friend Karl Liebknecht."

Historically, decisive things happen, as expressed in the title of the volume: "Return of the front troops". The soldiers are retired, are disoriented for a while, then many of them join the volunteer corps. These volunteer corps will liquidate the revolution. At the same time, in a very elaborate subsidiary thread, the Allies come together to transform the armistice into a peace order. At the center of this plot is the American President Wilson with his idea of ​​self-determination, peace and the League of Nations , which fails. The summary before the corresponding chapter reads under the title: "The struggle for peace":

“Wilson faces the final battle. He falls in full armor. "

The end of the Wilson plot is framed by sections that point to the beginning of the German “counter-revolution”, to the Kapp Putsch of March 1920.

In the area of ​​fictitious private action, there is a dramatic development in Becker, who is wrestling in an inner struggle to convert to an ethical and religious existence in the sense of Kierkegaard. He also attempts suicide before entering a religious life. The war neurotic becomes a religious seer.

"Karl and Rosa"

Rosa Luxemburg , alongside the fictional character Friedrich Becker, the main character of the third part.

In the final third part, Döblin dispensed with the presented summaries of chapters. The political plot spanned the period from mid-December 1918 to January 15, 1919, the day Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were murdered. On the fictional level, the developments of Stauffer and Becker are narrated up to the 1920s . Alongside Becker, Luxembourg becomes the main character in this part; Döblin devotes a lot of space to their representation. He describes her as “pathologically” mourners who, like Becker, cannot forget the dead of the World War, including her friend Hans Diefenbach, and the victims of wars and other social conflicts in general.

Berlin, January 12, 1919, barricades in the newspaper district.

On the historical level of the book it is about the successive events: the dismissal of the independent social democratic Berlin police president Emil Eichhorn by the social democratic Prussian interior minister, which triggered the so-called Spartacus uprising , the fighting in the Berlin newspaper district and finally the offensive of the government troops led by the Social Democratic People's Representative for the Army and Navy Gustav Noske , who led to the bloody suppression of the uprising in the newspaper district, to the equally bloody "cleansing" of workers' quarters, to the persecution of revolutionary leaders and ultimately to the murder of Liebknecht and Luxemburg.

The text of the murder of Rosa Luxemburg resembles a "slaughterhouse scene".

“The soldier with the young, red face under the steel helmet is waiting for you, the rifle on the ground in front of him, both hands on the barrel. (...) He sees her approaching. (...) And he lifts his rifle by the barrel and swings it up and lets the butt fall down on her skull like a hammer. (...)
Then the soldier, with his legs spread wide, strikes out for the second powerful blow. He swings the butt over himself and smashes it over her skull with such force that it cracks and she goes to the ground like a felled animal at the same time as the butt. It lies there like a sack and no longer moves.
He takes his rifle back, turns it and checks that the wood hasn't cracked. He nods to the other two, who are bending over the black, mute body, and says with satisfaction: "It held."

After the end of the revolution, the stories of Stauffer and Becker are continued through more or less dramatic phases and brought to different conclusions: Stauffer develops so much self-knowledge that his aesthetic existence becomes clear to him and he withdraws into inwardness. Becker is tried three times by the devil, who shows himself to him as a “Brazilian”, “lion” and “rat”, and he makes a Faustian bet. He then experiences the bloody January fights before he reflects on his life again in a final drama that is religiously designed and then ends up martyrdom among the neglected and criminals.

Origin and publication history

November 1918 is a work of exile literature ; it was created at the most important stages of Döblin's exile, in Paris and Los Angeles . Döblin avoided the declaration as a "novel" and preferred to describe the cycle of books as a "narrative work". At the end of 1937, in Paris, he began to design this narrative, which followed on from his political essay writing from the time of the Weimar Republic. In the spring of 1938 he visited Alsace, now French, to refresh his memory of the last months of the war, which he had experienced there as a hospital doctor. He processed the impressions of this trip in Bürger und soldiers 1918 , the first part of his presentation. He finished the manuscript of this first volume at the end of January 1939. A series of preprints of it appeared from March 3 to July 7, 1939 in the exile magazine Die Zukunft . Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War , the book was delivered by Querido Verlag in Amsterdam and by Bermann Fischer in Stockholm , but received little response. Before that, already in May 1939, there had been irritations at Querido Verlag because of the intended title. The publishing house had become aware that in 1930 a novel by Georg Hermann , who fled into exile in Holland in 1933, was published with the title “November eighteen”. It describes November 9th in Berlin from the perspective of a writer who slept through the revolution. The problem was solved with the title Citizens and Soldiers in 1918 .

Alfred Döblin, ca.1946

A Spanish translation of the first volume appeared as early as 1946 under the title Civiles y soldados in Buenos Aires , an Italian as Addio al Reno in Turin in 1949 . A French edition ( Bourgeois et soldats ) did not appear until 1982.

In a letter that he had sent to an editor at Bermann-Fischer-Verlag on February 3, 1939 after the first volume had been completed, Döblin outlined his plan: It was a trilogy, the next volume should have the title Ebert , the last then Karl and Rosa .

When he fled from Paris via Lisbon into American exile in 1940 , he had the rough version of a second volume with him, which at that time already comprised 600 pages. In Los Angeles, Döblin expanded the middle section of the planned trilogy so significantly that in 1942 it became two volumes: Betrayed People and Return of the Front Troops. Since then, Döblin has occasionally called his narrative a tetralogy. According to Helmuth Kiesel, the extensive revisions of two subject areas contributed to the considerable increase in the number of pages in the middle section . Once a long conversation between the two war returnees Becker and Maus about their experiences, during which they fell out. And especially the chapters on American President Wilson. This is only briefly mentioned in earlier parts of the narrative and appears in a rather critical light. After the revisions that Döblin carried out in exile in America, Wilson still appears as a “somewhat unworldly idealist”, but this is no longer ironicized. The portrayal of the president is downright " hagiographic ".

There was no publication possibility for the two volumes in the USA during the war. Work on the final volume Karl and Rosa began in 1942 and was completed a year later.

In 1945 Döblin returned to Germany as an officer in the French censorship authority. The manuscripts of the last three partial novels appeared in 1948, 1949 and 1950 in an edition of less than 5000 copies by Verlag Karl Alber . The volume Betrayed People came out with a 42-page prelude to compensate for the lack of the actual first volume. Citizens and soldiers 1918 was not published because the censorship authority, for which Döblin himself worked, did not allow printing because of the political statements contained in the volume on the affiliation of Alsace. Parts of it were, however, indispensable for understanding the following volumes. Döblin also had to delete the two middle volumes. Some of it was about the French General Philippe Pétain , who was revered as the "hero of Verdun" after the First World War (and was portrayed as such by Döblin), but was ostracized as a collaborator after the Second World War ; he had served as head of state of the Vichy regime from 1940 to 1944 .

In 1950 there was still no complete edition of the narrative. That only changed in 1978 with the dtv paperback edition, the first real complete edition of the narrative, the commentary by Heinz. D. Osterle was attached. In 1981 a complete edition appeared in the GDR. In 1991 a new edition was published by Walter Stauffacher, provided and commented on by Werner Stauffacher , which appeared in 1995 on dtv with identical text and pages. In 2008 the publishing house S. Fischer published a new edition of the four volumes and in 2013 a new complete edition of the three parts in four volumes appeared in the Fischer-Taschenbuchverlag as part of the Döblin complete edition published by Christina Althen. Each volume contains an afterword by Helmuth Kiesel .

100 years after the historical events, on November 3, 2018, the German National Theater Weimar premiered a four and a half hour stage version of the narrative, directed by André Bücker .

Reception history

Because only the first volume was printed during the Second World War, namely in editions of exile publishers, and because only three of the four volumes were published after the end of the war, each with a one-year gap, there were few reactions to Döblin's narrative. There were two major, positive reviews of the first volume after it was published. One wrote Alexander Moritz Frey for those of Thomas Mann co-founded the Zurich magazine Mass and value . Hermann Kesten wrote in Leopold Schwarzschild's Parisian exile magazine Das Neue Tage-Buch in detail about citizens and soldiers in 1918 and came to the conclusion that the novel was a great epic picture book.

The distribution and reception of the three volumes published by Verlag Karl Alber between 1948 and 1950 suffered under two circumstances. The books were not allowed to be distributed in the Soviet occupation zone and then in the GDR because the description of the revolution they contained did not match the description maintained there. And in the western zones of occupation and the FRG, the November volumes had strong competition from novels by Thomas Mann ( Doctor Faustus , 1947), Ernst Jünger ( Heliopolis , 1949) and Ernst von Salomon ( The Questionnaire , 1951), which were also aimed at a history-conscious audience were. There were only a few reviews in rather smaller newspapers and magazines in southwest Germany. Döblin was so irritated and disappointed by this that he said in a letter that his volumes were covered with the “boycott of silence”.

A new phase of reception began with the four-volume paperback edition published by dtv in 1978 for Döblin's 100th birthday and the four-volume paperback edition published by Rütten & Loening for the GDR. Bertolt Brecht had called the narrative “a political and aesthetic one-off in German literature and a reference work for all writers” and Hans Mayer described the work in his major Spiegel review as a historical novel and a “bitter work of exile” that everyone Moment mean the present. The end of a First World War is reported in anticipation of the consequences of a second. Mayer's review ends with the following sentences: “This book is truly coming out at the right time today. A book for the Federal Chancellor, union leaders and entrepreneurs, for Hardthöhe as well as for Rudi Dutschke. But they won't read it. "

For the new edition of the volumes in 2008, Eberhard Rathgeb wrote in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that this novel was a solitaire and not only within German literature. It should be read by anyone who wants to find out what revolution and history feels like when you are right in the middle of it: “Döblin's 'November 1918' is the last German history lesson. You shouldn't skip them. No historian has succeeded in what this novel did. Even Sebastian Haffner did not succeed with his gorgeous book about the German revolution (...). "Kiesel points to" striking "similarities in the overall political assessment of Döblin's narrative and Haffner's book of the revolution. Haffner also describes the German revolution as a "tragic comedy".

Also on the occasion of the new edition in 2008, Jan Süselbeck called the narrative work true to scale for the prose of an entire century. "Döblin created its very own sound, which Wolfgang Koeppen and Arno Schmidt, for example , tried to pick up, imitate and develop further after 1945."

The sociologist Hans Joas calls November 1918 a “book of conversions”. He is not referring to Döblin himself, who as a secular Jew approached Catholic Christianity and was baptized in California in 1941. He means Becker, who is converting to Christianity, and he also means the figure of Rosa Luxemburg in the narrative, who comes to a non-violent "anti-Leninism". Joas interprets that Döblin as a whole “moves the war into the light of conversion issues because it opens up not only for everything military, political and economic but also for the 'psychiatric' questions of the personality-changing effects of experience of violence”. And such conversion-driving experiences of violence could have very different consequences, the Christian Friedrich Becker approached the revolution, but the revolutionary socialist Rosa Luxemburg was moving away from it. "Gabriele Sander emphasizes that the continuation of the novel cycle was strongly influenced by Döblin's conversion to Catholicism .

Sander also emphasizes that in November 1918 Döblin had created a multi-layered work that vacillated between distance and commitment and, due to the bold combination of historiography and metaphysics, of political satire and Christian mysticism, is still able to irritate today.

Text output (selection)

  • Alfred Döblin: November 1918. A German revolution. Narrative work in three parts.
    • Part 1: Citizens and soldiers 1918. Fischer paperback, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-596-90468-6 ; also Volume 15.1 of the Collected Works, edited by Christina Althen.
    • Part 2, Volume 1: Betrayed People. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-596-90469-3 ; also Volume 15.2 of the Collected Works, edited by Christina Althen.
    • Part 2, Volume 2: Return of the Front Troops. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-596-90470-9 ; also Volume 15.3 of the Collected Works, edited by Christina Althen.
    • Part 3: Karl and Rosa. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-596-90471-6 ; also Volume 15.4 of the Collected Works, edited by Christina Althen.
  • Alfred Döblin: November 1918. A German revolution. Narrative work in 3 parts. Published by Werner Stauffacher . Walter, Olten and Freiburg im Breisgau 1991, ISBN 978-3-530-16700-9 (total ISBN for many volumes). Published in 1995 with identical text and pages by dtv, ISBN 978-3-423-59030-3 (total ISBN for four volumes).
    • Part 1: Citizens and soldiers 1918. With an introduction to the narrative, Walter, Freiburg im Breisgau 1991.
    • Part 2, Volume 1: Betrayed People. With a prelude from citizens and soldiers 1918 , based on the text of the first edition (1949), Walter, Freiburg im Breisgau 1991.
    • Part 2, Volume 2: Return of the Front Troops. Based on the text of the first edition (1949), Walter, Freiburg im Breisgau 1991.
    • Part 3: Karl and Rosa. Based on the text of the first edition (1949), Walter, Freiburg im Breisgau 1991.
  • Alfred Döblin: November 1918. Romantic tetralogy. Rütten and Loening, Berlin 1981. Licensed edition by Walter Verlag, Olten and Freiburg im Breisgau. Expenditures for the German Democratic Republic and the socialist countries.
    • Betrayed people. Rütten and Loening, Berlin 1981.
    • Citizens and soldiers. Rütten and Loening, Berlin 1981.
    • Return of the front troops. Rütten and Loening, Berlin 1981.
    • Karl and Rosa. Rütten and Loening, Berlin 1981.
  • Alfred Döblin: November 1918. A German revolution. Narrative. Complete edition in four volumes with an afterword by Heinz D. Osterle. Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag (dtv), Munich 1978, ISBN 978-3-423-01389-5 (total ISBN for four volumes).
    • Volume 1: Citizens and Soldiers 1918. dtv, Munich 1978.
    • Volume 2: Betrayed People. dtv, Munich 1978.
    • Volume 3: Return of the Front Troops. dtv, Munich 1978.
    • Volume 4: Karl and Rosa. dtv, Munich 1978.
  • Alfred Döblin: November 1918. A German revolution. Narrative. Karl Alber, Freiburg / Munich 1948/49/50.
    • Volume 1: Prelude. Betrayed people. Karl Alber, Freiburg / Munich 1948.
    • Volume 2: Return of the front troops. Karl Alber, Freiburg / Munich 1949.
    • Volume 3: Karl and Rosa. Karl Alber, Freiburg / Munich 1950.

literature

  • Christina Althen: Power Constellations of a German Revolution. Alfred Döblin's historical novel “November 1918”. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 978-3-631-45791-7 .
  • Arnold Busch: Faust and Fascism. Th. Mann's "Doctor Faustus" u. A. Döblins November 1918 as an exile confrontation with Germany . Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1984, ISBN 978-3-8204-8026-9 .
  • Oliver Jahraus , historical epic. November 1918. A German Revolution (1939, 1948, 1950). In: Sabina Becker (Ed.): Döblin manual. Life - work - effect. JB Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-476-02544-9 , pp. 155-171.
  • Hans Joas : A Christian through war and revolution. Alfred Döblin's short story »November 1918«. In: Sinn und Form , issue 6/2015.
  • Helmuth Kiesel , afterword. In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 1: Citizens and Soldiers 1918. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-596-90468-6 , pp. 415–442.
  • Helmuth Kiesel, afterword. In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 2, Volume 1: Betrayed People. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-596-90469-3 pp. 493-502.
  • Helmuth Kiesel, afterword. In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 2, Volume 2: Return of the Front Troops. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-596-90470-9 , pp. 577-581.
  • Helmuth Kiesel, afterword. In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 3: Karl and Rosa. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-596-90471-6 , pp. 777-793.
  • Ulrich Kittstein, Between Revolution, Violence and Divine Grace. Alfred Döblin's novel trilogy "November 1918" (1939-50) . In the S. and Regine Zeller (ed.), "Peace, Freedom, Bread!" Novels about the German November Revolution . Rodopi, Amsterdam / New York 2008, ISBN 978-90-420-2710-7 , pp. 307-324.
  • Anne Kuhlmann: Revolution as "History". Alfred Döblin's "November 1918". A programmatic reading of the historical novel . Niemeyer, Tübingen 1997, ISBN 978-3-484-63014-7 .
  • Meike Mattick: Comedy and history experience . Alfred Döblin's comic “Telling in November 1918. A German Revolution” . Aisthesis-Verlag, Bielefeld 2003, ISBN 978-3-89528-422-9 .
  • Heinz D. Osterle, Alfred Döblin's revolutionary novel . In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative. Volume 4: Karl and Rosa. dtv, Munich 1978, pp. 665-695.

Accessible online Reviews (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Oliver Jahraus , Historical Epic. November 1918. A German Revolution (1939, 1948, 1950). In: Sabina Becker (Ed.): Döblin manual. Life - work - effect. JB Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-476-02544-9 , pp. 155–171, here p. 161.
  2. ↑ Helmuth Kiesel , epilogue. In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 1: Citizens and soldiers 1918. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-596-90468-6 , pp. 415–442, here p. 426.
  3. ^ Gabriele Sander: Alfred Döblin. Reclam, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 978-3-15-017632-0 , p. 205
  4. ↑ Helmuth Kiesel, epilogue. In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 1: Citizens and Soldiers 1918. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, pp. 415–442, here p. 416.
  5. ↑ Oliver Jahraus, Historical Epic. November 1918. A German Revolution (1939, 1948, 1950). In: Sabina Becker (Ed.): Döblin manual. Life - work - effect. JB Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart 2016, pp. 155–171, here pp. 160 f.
  6. ↑ Helmuth Kiesel, epilogue. In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 1: Citizens and soldiers 1918. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, pp. 415–442, here p. 436.
  7. ↑ The table of contents and interpretation of the first part are based on Helmuth Kiesel, afterword, unless otherwise stated. In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 1: Citizens and soldiers 1918. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, pp. 415–442, here pp. 436–440 (subtitles: The first volume: told from the periphery and “into the surface” ).
  8. ↑ Helmuth Kiesel, epilogue. In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 1: Citizens and Soldiers 1918. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 415–442, here p. 439.
  9. ↑ The table of contents and interpretation of the first volume of the second part is based on Helmuth Kiesel, afterword, unless otherwise indicated. In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 2, Volume 1: Betrayed People . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-596-90469-3 pp. 493–502, here pp. 499–501 (subtitles: The second volume: from the periphery to the center of the revolution ).
  10. ^ Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 2, Volume 1: Betrayed People . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 111.
  11. ^ Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 2, Volume 1: Betrayed People . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 205.
  12. ↑ The table of contents and interpretation of the first volume of the second part is based on Helmuth Kiesel, afterword, unless otherwise indicated. In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 2, Volume 1: Betrayed People . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-596-90469-3 pp. 493–502, here pp. 499–501 (subtitles: The second volume: from the periphery to the center of the revolution ).
  13. ↑ The table of contents and interpretation of the second volume of the second part is based on Helmuth Kiesel, afterword , unless otherwise indicated . In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 2, Volume 2: Return of the Front Troops. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-596-90470-9 , pp. 577-581, here pp. 579 f. (Subheads: Deployment of the counterrevolution and failed domestication ).
  14. ^ Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 2, Volume 2: Return of the Front Troops. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 9
  15. ^ Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 2, Volume 1: Betrayed People . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 397.
  16. ↑ Helmuth Kiesel, epilogue. In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 1: Citizens and soldiers 1918. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-596-90468-6 , pp. 415–442, here p. 439.
  17. ↑ The content of the third part is based on Helmuth Kiesel, afterword. In: Alfred Döblin: November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 3: Karl and Rosa. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-596-90471-6 , pp. 777–793, here pp. 781–783 (subheading: The catastrophic end ).
  18. ↑ Stefan Fuchs: Alfred Döblin and the Revolution - The Novel “November 1918” , SWR2 , November 21, 2019 (broadcast manuscript, p. 4).
  19. ^ Alfred Döblin: November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 3: Karl and Rosa. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 680 f.
  20. ↑ Maria E. Müller, The Choice of Grace by Satans. The recourse to premodern pact traditions with Thomas Mann, Alfred Döblin and Elisabeth Langgässer . In: Werner Röcke (ed.), Thomas Mann, Doktor Faustus, 1947-1997 . Lang, Bern / Berlin a. a. 2001, ISBN 978-3-906766-29-4 , pp. 145–166, here p. 148 ff.
  21. ↑ Oliver Jahraus, Historical Epic. November 1918. A German Revolution (1939, 1948, 1950). In: Sabina Becker (Ed.): Döblin manual. Life - work - effect. JB Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart 2016, pp. 155–171, here p. 155.
  22. ↑ Helmuth Kiesel, epilogue. In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 1: Citizens and Soldiers 1918. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, pp. 415–442, here p. 426.
  23. ^ Gabriele Sander: Alfred Döblin. Reclam, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 978-3-15-017632-0 , p. 200 f.
  24. ^ Georg Hermann : November eighteen , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1930.
  25. ↑ Helmuth Kiesel, epilogue. In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 2, Volume 1: Betrayed People . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, pp. 493–502, here p. 494.
  26. ^ Alfred Doeblin: Civiles y soldados . Translation into Spanish: Juan F. Laub. Editorial Futuro, Buenos Aires 1946.
  27. ^ Alfred Doeblin: Addio al Reno . Translation into Italian: Ruth Leiser and Franco Fortini. Einaudi, Turin 1949.
  28. ^ Alfred Doeblin: Bourgeois et soldats . Pandora, Aix-en-Provence 1982, ISBN 2-86371-033-8 .
  29. ↑ Helmuth Kiesel, epilogue. In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 1: Citizens and Soldiers 1918. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, pp. 415–442, here p. 420.
  30. ↑ Helmuth Kiesel, epilogue. In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 2, Volume 2: Return of the Front Troops. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 577–581, here p. 577 f.
  31. ↑ Oliver Jahraus, Historical Epic. November 1918. A German Revolution (1939, 1948, 1950). In: Sabina Becker (Ed.): Döblin manual. Life - work - effect. JB Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart 2016, pp. 155–171, here p. 156 f.
  32. ↑ Helmuth Kiesel, epilogue. In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 2, Volume 1: Betrayed People . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, pp. 493–502, here p. 502.
  33. ↑ Oliver Jahraus, Historical Epic. November 1918. A German Revolution (1939, 1948, 1950). In: Sabina Becker (Ed.): Döblin manual. Life - work - effect. JB Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart 2016, pp. 155–171, here p. 157 f.
  34. ^ German National Theater Weimar : NOVEMBER 1918 based on Alfred Döblin .
  35. ↑ Tobias Prüwer: From a country torn by civil war . In: nachtkritik.de
  36. ↑ Helmuth Kiesel, epilogue. In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 1: Citizens and Soldiers 1918 . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, pp. 415–442, here pp. 440 f.
  37. ↑ Helmuth Kiesel, epilogue . In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 3: Karl and Rosa . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, pp. 777–793, here p. 786 f.
  38. ↑ Helmuth Kiesel, epilogue . In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 3: Karl and Rosa . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, pp. 777–793, here p. 788.
  39. ↑ Quoted from Gabriele Sander: Alfred Döblin . Reclam, Stuttgart 2001, p. 208.
  40. ↑ Hans Mayer : “A German Revolution. So none ” . In: Der Spiegel , 33/1978.
  41. ↑ Eberhard Rathgeb : Thinking life radically different . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung , 47/2008.
  42. ↑ Sebastian Haffner : 1918/19. A German revolution . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1981, ISBN 978-3-499-17455-1 .
  43. ↑ Helmuth Kiesel, epilogue . In: Alfred Döblin, November 1918. A German Revolution. Narrative work in three parts. Part 3: Karl and Rosa . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, pp. 777–793, here p. 789.
  44. ↑ Jan Süselbeck : The devil stayed. Alfred Döblin's monumental “narrative work” about the German revolution from “November 1918” has been reissued - a historical novel that set the standard for prose for an entire century . In: literaturkritik.de, November 12, 2008.
  45. ↑ Dirk Pilz: Read Döblin! Hans Joas discovers Alfred Döblin's great novel “November 1918” as a book of conversions in the magazine “Sinn und Form”. In: Frankfurter Rundschau , November 5, 2015.
  46. ↑ Hans Joas : A Christian through war and revolution. Alfred Döblin's short story »November 1918«. In: Sinn und Form , issue 6/2015, pp. 784–799.
  47. ^ Gabriele Sander: Alfred Döblin. Reclam, Stuttgart 2001, p. 201
  48. ^ Gabriele Sander: Alfred Döblin. Reclam, Stuttgart 2001, p. 208.
  49. ↑ Note from the literaturkritik editors: The article draws on parts of the afterwords that Helmuth Kiesel published to the volumes of Alfred Döblin's “November 1918” published in 2013 by Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on June 25, 2020 .