November 1918: Eine deutsche Revolution. Erzählwerk in drei Teilen. Zweiter Teil, Zweiter Band: Heimkehr der Fronttruppen (Alfred Döblin, Werke in zehn Bänden 6)

by Alfred Döblin

Alfred Döblins monumentales Erzählwerk über die NovemberrevolutionDezember 1918: In Berlin ziehen die deutschen Fronttruppen ein, und in Paris bereitet man eine große Friedenskonferenz vor. ›Heimkehr der Fronttruppen‹ widmet sich der verlorenen Generation der Kriegsheimkehrer und den Plänen der Alliierten für eine neue, dauerhafte Friedensordnung.Mit einem Nachwort von Helmuth Kiesel

588 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 23, 2013

About the author

Bruno Alfred Döblin (August 10, 1878 – June 26, 1957) was a German novelist, essayist, and doctor, best known for his novel Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929). A prolific writer whose œuvre spans more than half a century and a wide variety of literary movements and styles, Döblin is one of the most important figures of German literary modernism. His complete works comprise over a dozen novels ranging in genre from historical novels to science fiction to novels about the modern metropolis; several dramas, radio plays, and screenplays; a true crime story; a travel account; two book-length philosophical treatises; scores of essays on politics, religion, art, and society; and numerous letters — his complete works, republished by Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag and Fischer Verlag, span more than thirty volumes. His first published novel, Die drei Sprünge des Wang-lung (The Three Leaps of Wang Lun), appeared in 1915 and his final novel, Hamlet oder Die lange Nacht nimmt ein Ende (Tales of a Long Night) was published in 1956, one year before his death.

Reviews

[Juan Jacobo Bernal · Rating 3 out of 5]

"November 1918" by Alfred Döblin provides a romanticized account of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht during the chaotic days of the German Revolution of 1918. While Döblin paints a vivid, imaginative picture of their lives and the values they fought for, I found that it leaned too heavily into fiction and idealization. I was hoping for a more objective, historical account, so while the book is beautifully written, it wasn't quite what I was looking for.

[Peter Jakobs · Rating 4 out of 5]

War (WW I) is over, Wilhelm II escaped to Holland, Spartacus, democrats and the military fight for power in Germany, in particular in Berlin, POTUS Wilson travels to France to achieve a real global peace. All this plus the personal situation of characters already introduced in the previous parts of this sequence. Much better than any standard history lesson.