Döblin, Alfred

Alfred Döblin was a German author, born Bruno Alfred Döblin to a German-Jewish merchant family in Stettin (now Szcecin in Poland). His father, Max, a tailor with dreams of becoming an artist, eloped with a young shop attendant to the United States when Döblin was ten years old. In 1888, the family moved to Berlin where they lived in meagre circumstances. His mother, Sophie, was a merchant’s daughter. Despite the financial situation and a difficult time at school, Alfred learned to read and write at an early age. After passing his baccalaureate in 1900, he studied medicine at Berlin and Freiburg, specializing in neurology and psychiatry. He graduated in 1905 but gave up medicine temporarily and took up journalism.