You're getting into the deepest of waters in literary terms, simply because so many bizarre and unlikely bedfellows were never crammed together in such a small space and time as they were there. Reactionary buffoons and psychopaths rubbed shoulders with innumerable transcendent talents of world-historic significance: painters, philosophers, writers, physicists.

It's too much to get into in a reddit comment, but I believe Musil's "The man without qualities" would give you a great start.