Maximilian Kohler

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Maximilian Kohler is a fictional character in the 2000 novel Angels and Demons. Kohler is the executive director for CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, Switzerland.

[edit] Background

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Maximilian Kohler is the executive director of CERN and stumbles on Leonardo Vetra's dead body when giving him a visit. Kohler is a wheelchair bound physicist who manages to quickly preserve the body by freezing it. He later manages to contact Robert Langdon by accessing his personal website which supposedly contained contact details. He manages to call up Langdon who is living in Boston, Massachusetts but is hung up on after Langdon commented to Kohler as being a prank caller because of Langdon commenting that he hadn't posted any contact details on his website. Kohler managed to convince Langdon after sending him a picture of Leonardo's dead body and branded Illuminati logo through the Fax.

When Langdon agreed to investigate the logo, Kohler sent the Lockheed Martin X-33 jet to Boston and to bring Langdon to CERN's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. When Langdon arrived into CERN headquarters, both were met by Vittoria Vetra (Leonardo's daughter) and discussed his death and the theft of Leonardo's invention - a large sample of antimatter in Vetra's underground laboratory. When resurfacing back into the main lobby, Kohler received a phone call from the Vatican City regarding the missing antimatter. He urged that Langdon and Vittoria go as he was starting to feel ill. Kohler was hopitalised but hours later he secretly escaped back to CERN and ordered immediate preparation to fly to the Vatican City to complete his mission. Kohler later arrived at the Vatican in order to interrogate the Camerlengo (who he believed to be Janus), only to be killed by Swiss Guards.