''Berlin Alexanderplatz'' (), originally broadcast in 1980, is a 14-part West German

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in C ...

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format ...

, set in 1920s

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

and adapted and directed by

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Rainer Werner Fassbinder (; 31 May 1945 – 10 June 1982), sometimes credited as R. W. Fassbinder, was a German filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the major figures and catalysts of the New German Cinema movement. Fassbinder's mai ...

from

Alfred Döblin Bruno Alfred Döblin (; 10 August 1878 – 26 June 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 ...

's 1929 novel of the same name. It stars Günter Lamprecht,

Hanna Schygulla Hanna Schygulla (; born 25 December 1943) is a German actress and chanson singer associated with the theater and film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. She first worked for Fassbinder in 1965 and became an active participant in the New German ...

, Barbara Sukowa, Elisabeth Trissenaar and

Gottfried John Gottfried John (; 29 August 1942 – 1 September 2014) was a German stage, screen, and voice actor. A long-time collaborator of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, John appeared in nine of the filmmaker's projects between 1975 and 1981, the year befor ...

. The complete series is 15 hours (

NTSC The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...

and home media releases expand the runtime by half an hour). In 1983, it was released theatrically in the United States by TeleCulture, where a theatre would show two or three parts per night. It garnered a cult following there and was eventually released on VHS and broadcast on PBS and then Bravo. In 1985, it was transmitted in the United Kingdom on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

Episodes

Synopsis

"The Punishment Begins"

Berlin, 1928. Franz Biberkopf is released after serving four years in Tegel prison for killing his girlfriend Ida. After settling into his old apartment he visits Minna, Ida's sister, and rapes her. In a flashback we see Franz kill Ida with a cream whip after correctly suspecting she was about to leave him. Franz later runs into his old friend Meck and has a drink with him in Max's bar, a local place. There he meets Lina Przybilla, a young Polish woman, who moves in with him. He receives notification from the Berlin police that he is barred from living in certain Berlin districts and surrounding municipalities, under the threat of a fine or imprisonment. Biberkopf places himself under the supervision of a charity called Prisoners' Aid, to which he must report once a month while remaining in employment. By doing this, he is able to remain in Berlin.

"How Is One to Live if One Doesn’t Want to Die?"

Franz is self-employed hawking necktie holders on the street, but has trouble making enough money and does not consider himself an orator. After turning down the opportunity to sell sex education manuals, he is talked into selling the Nazi newspaper '' Völkischer Beobachter'' and wearing a swastika armband. In the subway, Franz is confronted by a Jewish man selling hot sausages, but denies being

antisemitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Ant ...

, and Dreske with two other men also known to him. Dreske admires

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, but Franz responds by decrying revolution and 'their'

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a Constitutional republic, constitutional federal republic for the first time in ...

. At Max's bar, Dreske and his friends sing "

The Internationale "The Internationale" (french: "L'Internationale", italic=no, ) is an international anthem used by various communist and socialist groups; currently, it serves as the official anthem of the Communist Party of China. It has been a standard of t ...

” to provoke Franz, to which he responds by singing the 19th-century patriotic songs " The Watch on the Rhine and " Ich hatt' einen Kameraden". At the top of his voice, Franz accuses them of being loudmouths and crooks, before almost collapsing. The other men return to their table. Outside, Franz meets Lina. He rambles about what has just happened; the men he has just met cannot understand life and do not know what it is like to be in prison.

"A Hammer Blow to the Head Can Injure the Soul"

Lina is now troubled by the dubious nature of the job Franz is fulfilling. She introduces him to a family friend, Otto Lüders, who turns out to be an ex-con he knows from prison, but Franz thinks Otto is a good man. With him, Franz begins selling shoelaces door-to-door. In the first apartment, Franz spends time with a widow whose deceased husband he closely resembles. Later, to Otto, he reports having sex with the widow. The next day, Otto goes to the widow's home and expects the same, but she feels threatened and rejects him. Otto demands money and steals from her. When Franz goes back to the widow, happily expecting another tryst, she slams the door on him. Franz vanishes. Lina distraught, searches for him with Meck. They wake Otto in the early morning, but Meck recognises that his account is full of lies and hits him. Franz is found in a flophouse by Otto, who is immediately threatened with a chair. Otto offers him a share of the money Franz realises has been extorted from the widow, but wanting to go straight, he pours the contents of a chamber pot over Otto. Meck gets Franz's location out of Otto, but Franz had left soon after the earlier incident. Meck persuades Lina that Franz wishes to be left alone, and suggests she live with him.

"A Handful of People in the Depths of Silence"

Franz goes on an alcohol binge as a former medical orderly, Baumann, looks after him in rooms in a building opposite the one occupied by the prisoners' charity on which he depends for his liberty in Berlin. Franz wanders the streets in a delirious state; outside a church he takes a coal delivery man for a pastor. When he comes round after another binge, Baumann tells him he has been lying in a stupor for three days. Franz now feels that neither God, Satan, angels or other people can help him. After various thefts in the building become known, Baumann tells Franz he will not be with him for much longer, though the occupants of the neighbouring rooms are soon arrested. Franz strikes up a conversation with the vendor who offered him the sex education manuals, and discovers Meck is now selling clothes on the street and apparently doing well. Meck admits to Franz that he had been living with Lina until she left him.

"A Reaper with the Power of Our Lord"

Franz, after several fleeting encounters, has finally become reacquainted with Eva. Eva, for whom he used to pimp, feels a deep affection for him, and has paid the rent for his old rooms in his absence. At Max's, Meck introduces Franz to Pums, the ringleader of an illegal enterprise. He also meets Reinhold, one of Pums's men. Reinhold is tired of his woman, Fränze, and wants Franz to take her off his hands. Franz has her come over and has sex with her. She returns to him after she cannot find Reinhold. Reinhold then employs the same plan with his current woman, Cilly, whom Franz accommodates after provoking a row with Fränze. Reinhold, after contact with the

Salvation Army Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its ...

, has had enough of "broads" and is desperate to end his involvement with his current woman, Trude, but Cilly is angry when this is explained to her by Franz, and she briefly considers Franz worse in his treatment of women than Reinhold, possibly unaware of Ida's murder, but she persuades Franz to tell Trude about Reinhold's nature. They are reconciled.

"Love Has Its Price"

Franz explains to Reinhold that he wants Cilly to remain with him. Franz gets sucked into Pums's gang when he is drafted for a job as a last-minute replacement for Bruno, who gets beaten in the street. Franz ends up as a lookout as Pums, Reinhold, and Meck pull a robbery. In the getaway truck, Reinhold becomes suspicious of Franz because of a car that seems to be following them. Reinhold throws Franz out of the back of the truck.

"Remember — An Oath Can Be Amputated"

Franz has survived the car accident, but his right arm has been amputated. He recuperates for a time with Eva and Eva's lover Herbert. Herbert agitates against Pums's syndicate, so the boss decides to take up a collection to help with Franz's medical costs. Franz goes to a red light district and encounters a pimp who offers him a woman he calls the whore of Babylon.

"The Sun Warms the Skin, but Burns It Sometimes Too"

Franz gets involved in an illegal enterprise with Willy, whom he met at a cabaret. Eva and Herbert drop by to see Franz and bring a young woman they offer as a new lover. Franz and the tender-hearted woman, whom he names Mieze, fall for each other. However, their spell of love is broken when Franz finds a love letter from another man.

"About the Eternities Between the Many and the Few"

Eva explains to Franz that Mieze just wants to work to support him as Franz cannot do so due to his missing arm. He reconciles with Mieze. Franz goes to Reinhold's and tells him how he has become a pimp. Reinhold is disgusted by Franz's stump of an arm. Franz is inspired by a

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

rally and spouts his newly learned rhetoric to Eva and Herbert, which upsets Eva.

"Loneliness Tears Cracks of Madness Even in Walls"

As Mieze cannot have children, Eva tells her she will have a child with Franz that Mieze can then raise. Mieze is delighted. Eva also tells Mieze she's concerned that Franz is concerting with Willy and communists. Mieze gets him to agree to stay out of politics. After Mieze describes the agreement made with Eva for Franz's baby, Franz is horrified as he thinks Mieze wants to be rid of him. Mieze pleads that she loves him. The two get drunk and are happy until Mieze's rich client arrives. Franz only finds out then that she is going away with him for three days and weeps in despair.

"Knowledge Is Power and the Early Bird Catches the Worm"

Franz goes to Reinhold and tells him he wants to get involved with Pums again. Reinhold still has his suspicions but Franz is allowed to assist the gang with a job. Mieze is upset that Franz is earning money because she thinks Franz wants to be independent of her, but Franz reassures her. Franz brags to Reinhold about Mieze's devotion and decides to show him what a fine woman she is. In the apartment, Franz has Reinhold hide in the bed when Mieze arrives. She reveals she is in love with another man. Franz is angered and beats her cruelly, but Reinhold saves her and Franz throws Reinhold out. Mieze goes out to Franz and the two reconcile, though she has been bloodied by him. Franz and Mieze take a trip outside Berlin, where he explains to her he simply wanted Reinhold to see a true woman.

"The Serpent in the Soul of the Serpent"

Franz introduces Mieze to Meck. Reinhold blackmails Meck to set up a meeting for him with Mieze. Meck takes Mieze on a drive to Bad Freienwalde and delivers her to Reinhold. Reinhold takes her for a walk in the woods, where she resists his advances. Mieze wants to know more about Franz, and Reinhold reveals it is because of him that Franz lost his arm. Mieze is horrified at this revelation. Reinhold strangles her and leaves her in the woods.

"The Outside and the Inside and the Secret of Fear of the Secret"

Franz tells Eva that Mieze has left him. Eva reassures him, though she is a bit concerned herself. A robbery pulled off by Pums's gang goes wrong and Meck burns himself with a welding torch. Franz takes Meck to his apartment to bandage his wound. Meck tells Franz that Reinhold is a bad guy, but Franz claims he has a good heart. Meck takes the police out into the woods and helps them find Mieze's strangled body, telling them he helped to bury her. Eva brings Franz a newspaper that relates Mieze's murder. Franz lapses into demented laughter, claiming he is pleased that at least Mieze did not leave him as he had thought. Once he stops laughing, he vows to kill Reinhold.

"My Dream of the Dream of Franz Biberkopf by Alfred Döblin, an Epilogue"

In a fantasy sequence, Franz walks along a street of the dead with two angels. He finds Mieze, but she disappears from his arms. Reinhold is in prison for the crimes committed by a man whose identity he has acquired. He is anguished that his cellmate and lover is being released. Franz is taken to an asylum. Much of the rest of the episode takes place in his imagination. Franz's being run over by the car is re-enacted with different characters taking on the roles of victim and driver. In a striking sequence, Franz and Mieze are treated like animals being slaughtered in an abattoir. On a nativity set, Franz is raised on a cross as the other characters watch. An atom bomb goes off in the background and the angels clear the dead. The surreal imagery ceases suddenly and Franz is at Reinhold's trial testifying to his good character. Reinhold is sentenced to 10 years for manslaughter. Eva tells Franz she has lost the baby. The film concludes with Franz as an assistant gatekeeper at a factory. He is alert to his job but not to war on the horizon.

Cast

* Günter Lamprecht as Franz Biberkopf *

as Eva * Barbara Sukowa as Emilie "Mieze" Karsunke *

as Reinhold Hoffmann * Franz Buchrieser as Meck *

Claus Holm Claus Holm (4 August 1918 – 21 September 1996) was a German film actor. He appeared in 50 films between 1943 and 1979. He was born in Bochum, Germany and died in Berlin, Germany. Selected filmography * ''Floh im Ohr'' (1943) - Knecht H ...

as Max, bar-owner *

Brigitte Mira Brigitte Mira (, 20 April 1910 – 8 March 2005) was a German actress. She worked in both theater and film, later in her career with Rainer Werner Fassbinder on many occasions. Believed to have been born in Hamburg, she moved early on to Berl ...

as Frau Bast *

Roger Fritz Roger Fritz (22 September 1936 – 26 November 2021) was a German actor, director, producer and photographer, perhaps best known for ''Cross of Iron'', and his work with Rainer Werner Fassbinder in '' Querelle'', ''Lili Marleen'' and ''Berlin Ale ...

as Herbert * Elisabeth Trissenaar as Lina Przybilla *

Barbara Valentin Barbara Valentin (born Ursula Ledersteger; 15 December 1940 – 22 February 2002) was an Austrian actress. She worked in film, often with Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Biography Valentin was born in 1940 as Ursula Ledersteger in Vienna, Austria. He ...

as Ida * Hark Bohm as Otto Lüders *

Ivan Desny Ivan Desny (born Ivan Nikolaevich Desnitskij; 28 December 1922 – 13 April 2002) was a Chinese-born actor of Russian descent. Early life Desny was born in Peking, China. Career Desny was a film actor. Bilingual in French and German, he acted ...

as Pums * Jürgen Draeger as Sausage vendor *

Annemarie Düringer Annemarie Düringer (26 November 1925 – 26 November 2014) was a Swiss actress. She was born in Arlesheim, Basel-Landschaft. The daughter of a Swiss industrialist, she graduated from Cours Simon, Paris in 1946, and from the Max Reinhardt Semin ...

as Cilly * Irm Hermann as Trude * Fritz Schediwy as Willy * Traute Hoess as Emmy *

Volker Spengler Volker Spengler (; 16 February 1939 – 8 February 2020) was a German stage and film actor. Spengler was best known to international audiences as a member of director Rainer Werner Fassbinder's acting ensemble, including his role as the transse ...

as Bruno * Günther Kaufmann as Theo * Peter Kollek as Nachum *

Margit Carstensen Margit Carstensen (born 29 February 1940) is a German theatre and film actress, best known outside Germany for roles in the works of film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Theater career Carstensen, the daughter of a physician, was born and rai ...

as Terah * Helmut Griem as Sarug * Karin Baal as Minna * Axel Bauer as Dreske * Helen Vita as Fränze * Vitus Zeplichal as Rudi * Gerhard Zwerenz as Baumann * Lilo Pempeit as Frau Pums *

Elma Karlowa Elma Karlowa (March 12, 1932 – December 31, 1994) was a Yugoslav film and television actress.Fritsche p.255 Selected filmography * '' Once I Will Return'' (1953) * '' A Child of the Community'' (1953) * '' Guitars of Love'' (1954) * ''Cabaret' ...

as Frau Greiner * Y Sa Lo as Ilse *

as Narrator / Himself * Raul Gimenez as Konrad * Mechthild Großmann as Paula, prostitute *

Peter Kuiper Peter Kuiper (Langsa, 30 March 1929 – Berlin, 28 September 2007) was a German actor of film, theatre and television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Th ...

as Bald man * Angela Schimd as the widow *

Udo Kier Udo Kierspe (born 14 October 1944), known professionally as Udo Kier, is a German actor. Known primarily as a character actor, Kier has appeared in more than 220 films in both leading and supporting roles throughout Europe and the Americas. He h ...

as Young man in the bar * Klaus Höhne as Newspaper vendor * Herbert Steinmetz as Newspaper vendor in the subway

Production

''Berlin Alexanderplatz'' was a co-production between the German Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), Bavaria Film GmbH and the Italian network

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

. Production took place at the

Bavaria Film Studios Bavaria Studios are film production studios located in Munich, the capital of the region of Bavaria in Germany, and a subsidiary of Bavaria Film. History The studios were constructed in the suburb of Geiselgasteig in 1919 shortly after the Fi ...

for nearly a year. Fassbinder imagined making a "parallel" film which he would make specifically for theatrical distribution after completion. His fantasy cast included

Gérard Depardieu Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu, CQ (, , ; born 27 December 1948) is a French actor, filmmaker, businessman and vineyard owner since 1989 who is one of the most prolific thespians in film history having completed over 250 films since 1967 al ...

as Franz and Isabelle Adjani as Mieze.

Impact

The film has made an impact on many distinguished filmmakers and critics.

Susan Sontag Susan Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, philosopher, and political activist. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay " Notes on 'Camp'", in 1964. He ...

wrote an appreciation in a September 1983 issue of ''

Vanity Fair Vanity Fair may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Literature * Vanity Fair, a location in '' The Pilgrim's Progress'' (1678), by John Bunyan * ''Vanity Fair'' (novel), 1848, by William Makepeace Thackeray * ''Vanity Fair'' (magazines), the ...

''. Directors

Michael Mann Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943) is an American director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television who is best known for his distinctive style of crime drama. His most acclaimed works include the films '' Thief'' (1981) ...

and

Francis Ford Coppola Francis Ford Coppola (; ; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the major figures of the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Coppola is the recipient of five ...

have cited the series as an influence. In the 1990s, film director Todd Haynes appropriated imagery from the film's phantasmagorical epilogue in '' Velvet Goldmine''. The film has also been mentioned in cult television series such as '' The Critic'' and ''

Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on WUCW, KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1 ...

''. '' NME'' and ''

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American crime drama television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The Wire'' premiered on June 2 ...

'' journalist Chris Bohn wrote under the pseudonym "Biba Kopf" from 1984 onwards in tribute to its central character.

Restoration

In 2005, the German Cultural Institute, having completed the reconstruction and restoration of

Sergei Eisenstein Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ ɪjzʲɪnˈʂtʲejn, 2=Sergey Mikhaylovich Eyzenshteyn; 11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, scree ...

's ''

Battleship Potemkin '' Battleship Potemkin'' (russian: Бронено́сец «Потёмкин», ''Bronenosets Potyomkin''), sometimes rendered as ''Battleship Potyomkin'', is a 1925 Soviet silent drama film produced by Mosfilm. Directed and co-written by S ...

'', decided to restore ''Berlin Alexanderplatz'', stating that the original

16mm film 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, ed ...

negative was in "catastrophic physical condition" and that it "must be restored". Beginning in 2006, the series underwent restoration and remastering to 35mm. ''Berlin Alexanderplatz: Remastered'' received its world premiere on 9 February 2007 at the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the fest ...

where episodes 1 and 2 were shown. The restoration was completed in early 2007, exactly 25 years after Fassbinder's death. The entire series ran on 11 February 2007 in five instalments. The re-release was accompanied by a book that includes the screenplay, drawings, selections from Döblin's novel, as well as selected reviews. A DVD set containing additional material was released in Germany on 10 February 2007, and was released in America through

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scho ...

in November 2007. Richard Corliss of ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' named it one of the Top 10 DVDs of 2007, ranking it at #9.
orliss, Richard; Top 10 DVDs; time.com

References

External links

* * *
''Berlin Alexanderplatz: He Who Lives in a Human Skin''
an essay by

Tom Tykwer Tom Tykwer (; born 23 May 1965) is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, and composer. He is best known internationally for directing the thriller films '' Run Lola Run'' (1998), ''Heaven'' (2002), '' Perfume: The Story of a Murderer' ...

at the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cine ...

''Berlin Alexanderplatz''
at the Fassbinder Foundation
''Berlin Alexanderplatz: Remastered''
at the Fassbinder Foundation
''Berlin Alexanderplatz: Remastered''
at Bavaria Film International {{DEFAULTSORT:Berlin Alexanderplatz (Miniseries) 1980 films 1980 television films 1980s German television series German epic films Films based on German novels Films directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder Films set in Berlin Films set in the 1920s 1980s German-language films German television films Political drama films Television shows based on German novels Television series set in the 1920s West German films Films about cities Prostitution in television Films set in psychiatric hospitals German LGBT-related films German prison films German-language television shows Das Erste original programming 1980s German television miniseries Grimme-Preis for fiction winners Works about prostitution in Germany 1980s German films