Abstract
The text explains and partially substantiates the following theses: 1) There is a connection between a) the concealment of the presumed value and/or ontological centre of the world (goodness or justice, reality or truth, in the language of the texts considered here "the law" or "the castle"), b) the covering up of this concealment in human interpretations, and c) the differentiation of individuals or groups as superior and inferior. 2) This connection is thematized in Kafka's novels The Trial and The Castle, especially in the legend Before the Law and its analysis and in the story of Amalia's family. 3) Kafka's texts, e.g. the novels mentioned above or Kafka's aphorisms, testify to the effort to overcome the disunity described in 1 (c) and to foster a consciousness of the unity of all people, or even of all living beings.