Berlin Alexanderplatz (German: [bɛʁˈliːn ʔalɛkˈsandɐˌplats]), originally broadcast in 1980, is a 14-part West German crime television miniseries, set in 1920s Berlin and adapted and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder from Alfred Döblin's 1929 novel of the same name.

It stars Günter Lamprecht, Hanna Schygulla, Barbara Sukowa, Elisabeth Trissenaar and Gottfried John.

In 1983, it was released theatrically in the United States by TeleCulture, where a theater would show two or three parts per night.

Franz Biberkopf is released after serving four years in Tegel prison for killing his girlfriend Ida.

Biberkopf places himself under the supervision of a charity called Prisoners' Aid, to which he must report once a month while remaining in employment.

Franz is self-employed hawking necktie holders on the street, but has trouble making enough money and does not consider himself an orator.

In the subway, Franz is confronted by a Jewish man selling hot sausages, but denies being antisemitic, and Dreske with two other men also known to him.

Dreske admires Lenin and the Soviet Union, but Franz responds by decrying revolution and 'their' Weimar Republic.

They wake Otto in the early morning, but Meck recognises that his account is full of lies and hits him.

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.

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.

Reinhold then employs the same plan with his current woman, Cilly, whom Franz accommodates after provoking a row with Fränze.

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.

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.

Eva and Herbert drop by to see Franz and bring a young woman, Emilie Karsunke, whom they offer as a new lover.

After the meeting, Franz and Willy playfully debate a militant worker about the merits of their "dishonest" work.

Eva also tells Mieze she's concerned that Franz is getting into trouble with "rogue" Willy, when he should be attending to those who took his arm.

Franz drunkenly wanders the streets at night repeating snippets of the conversation before declaring he has no use for politics.

Franz takes a taxi to the Tegel prison, where he falls asleep on a park bench before being accosted by a police officer and, now very drunk, making his way back home.

Responding negatively to a lecture from Herbert on his increasing drunkenness, Franz returns home and Mieze and he agree to get drunk.

Franz and Mieze take a trip outside Berlin, where he explains to her he simply wanted Reinhold to see a true woman.

The surreal imagery ceases suddenly and Franz is at Reinhold's trial testifying to his good character.

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

Directors Michael Mann and Francis Ford Coppola have cited the series as an influence.

The film has also been mentioned in cult television series such as The Critic and Mystery Science Theater 3000.

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

Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote- 'Berlin Alexanderplatz is to experience, right from the start, a sensation of danger, of venture'.