Maximilian Kohler

Maximilian Kohler is a fictional character in Dan Brown's 2000 novel Angels and Demons.

Background

In the novel, Maximilian Kohler is executive director of CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, Switzerland. Some childhood illness has 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.
At the beginning of the story, Kohler finds Leonardo Vetra's body when visiting him. 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 ambigramic 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. Kohler's actions prove prudent as he soon needed to hospitalized.

Within hours he has an epiphany, secretly escapes, returns to CERN, and flies to the Vatican. There he interrogates the Camerlengo and proves his theory correct - he is Janus. However, his adversary is prepared. The Camerlengo brands himself with an ambrigrammic Illuminati iron and cries out for help. Langdon, Vittoria and the Swiss guards, already suspicious that Kohler is Janus charge into the room and shoot the wheelchair-bound genius, killing him.

Kohler is ultimately the victor of the confrontation, however - he recorded the Camerlengo's confession. As he lies dying, he passes the recording to Langdon with no one the wiser, and though the academic believes it to be a final Illuminati speech, he keeps it, simply to deny it to the media. Several hours later, he views the recording by accident and afterward exposes the Camerlengo.