Berge Meere und Giganten

Berge Meere und Giganten (Mountains Seas and Giants) is a 1924 science fiction novel by German author Alfred Döblin. Stylistically and structurally experimental, the novel follows the development of human society into the 27th century and depicts global-scale conflicts between future polities, technologies, and natural forces, culminating in the catastrophic harvesting of Iceland's volcanic energy in order to melt Greenland's ice cap. Among critics, Berge Meere und Giganten has the reputation of being a difficult and polarizing novel, and has not received nearly as much attention as Döblin's following novel, Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929).

Inspired by the mundane sight of pebbles rolling in the Baltic Sea surf in the summer of 1921, Döblin began writing Berge Meere und Giganten that fall, conducting extensive research into various natural and human sciences in the process. Although he had originally conceived of it as a hymn to the city and technology, over the course of writing the novel it evolved into a tribute to the power of nature. He finished the manuscript in the summer of 1923, and it was published by Fischer Verlag the following year.