Theweleit discusses episodes from our own age in the lives of Brecht, Hamsun, Rilke, and Kafka. The most bitter chapter is reserved for the relationship between the life and work of Brecht. Brecht used Margarete Steffin as his typist and lover and then finally left her to die in Moscow. But that he should write a poem about her death, in which she rises from the dead as a coughing constellation of stars so that Brecht may say to or about her what he likes - this is past Theweleit's limit. Brecht was shameless.
Shame allows our access to what actually took place between people.
Kafka's massive correspondence with Felice Bauer connects all the poles charged by Theweleit over the past 1,000 pages. Following a chance encounter, Kafka decided to fall in love with Felice, who was, in fact, employed by Germany's leading manufacturer of dictating machines and had worked as a stenographer for a phonograph record company. Kafka expressed his fascination with the use of media by endlessly proposing to distribute the new recording equipment. At the same time, he used Felice to boost his own art production. He transformed her body into a not yet existing but anticipated or desired device that registers everything.