Maximilian Kohler

Maximilian Kohler is a fictional character in Dan Brown's 2000 novel "Angels and Demons". In the novel, Maximilian Kohler is the paralytic executive director of CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, Switzerland and one of the most respected and feared person at CERN. People working at CERN called him "König" because he seemed to be like a king sitting on an electronic wheelchair.

In the novel, Kohler is well-known for his wheelchair filled with different electronic gadgets such as computer, telephone, and pager. One of his armrest contains a hidden miniature video camera that allows him to record videos secretly during meetings. His wheelchair also hides a gun, as he is a good marksman and known to practice shooting during his free time.

Kohler is also known for his staunch atheism and hate for religion. He blames religion for his disability and inability to live a normal life like having sex. Ironically, his best friend, Leonardo Vetra, is a priest and has a great respect for him.

Background

Early Childhood

He was born in Frankfurt, Germany, as a child of a prosperous Christian family. A childhood illness left him confined to a wheelchair because he was denied treatment by his extremely religious parents who believed the disease a test from God. Kohler survived only because a doctor treated him without his parents' knowledge. As a result, Kohler developed a fanatical hatred of religion and a fanatical love of science. He has become a world renowned physicist as part of a crusade to use science to disprove all religion.

CERN

At the beginning of the story, Kohler finds Leonardo Vetra's body when Vetra did not show up for a meeting. Kohler went to his apartment and saw him dead. He freezes the body to preserve it and contacts Robert Langdon via his personal website which supposedly contained contact details, but Langdon in Boston, Massachusetts dismisses Kohler as prank caller as his website gives no contact details. Kohler eventually convinces Langdon of his sincerity by faxing him a picture of Leonardo's dead body, which is branded with an ambigrammic Illuminati logo.

Langdon agrees to investigate and Kohler sends his jet to take Langdon to CERN's headquarters where they are met by Leonardo's daughter Vittoria Vetra who believes that her father was murdered to facilitate the theft of his work - a large sample of antimatter in Vetra's underground laboratory. When Kohler returns to the main lobby he receives a phone call from Vatican City about the missing antimatter. He starts to feel ill, so he persuades Langdon and Vittoria to go in his place.

Death

Within hours, he recovered and went to Vetra's study where he found a diary locked in Vetra's desk. After reading his diary, he was able to find out the other person who knows Vetra's research and flies to the Vatican. With the help of Captain Rocher, whom he contacted earlier and revealing to him the real identity of Janus, he interrogates the Camerlengo and proves his guess is correct - the Camerlengo is Janus. With Kohler pointing his gun at the Camerlengo, he manages to extract the confession from the young priest who was unknowingly being recorded by Kohler in his video cam. The Camerlengo, not wanting Kohler to succeed, brands himself with an ambrigrammic Illuminati iron and cries out for help. Langdon, Vittoria and the Swiss guards, already suspicious that Kohler might be Janus, charge into the room and shoot Kohler.

As Kohler he lies dying, he passes the recording to Langdon instructing him to give it to the media. Langdon thought it was an Illuminati speech at first until he heard it while in hospital. Langdon played the video in-front of the cardinals and exposed the Camerlengo.

By the end of the novel, Gunther Glick reported that Kohler died, due to his long-time illness, as he tried to offer help with the crisis.