Alfred Döblin was a German novelist and essayist, born on August 10, 1878, in Stettin, which is now Szczecin, Poland. He is best known for his modernist novel, Berlin Alexanderplatz, published in 1929, which explores the life of a small-time criminal in Berlin during the Weimar Republic. Döblin's writing style often incorporated stream-of-consciousness techniques and vivid imagery. Döblin was also a physician and had a keen interest in psychology, which influenced his literary work. He fled Germany in 1933 due to the rise of the Nazi regime and spent time in France and the United States before returning to Germany after World War II. He passed away on June 26, 1957, in Emmendingen, Germany.