Rotwang

C. A. Rotwang is a fictional character in Fritz Lang's 1927 science fiction film Metropolis. Rotwang was played by Rudolf Klein-Rogge.

Character overview

He is a brilliant inventor, whose greatest achievement is the creation of a robot made in the form of a woman. He intended the robot to be a replacement for his wife, Hel, who left him for the now master of the city, Joh Frederson, and who died while giving birth to Frederson's son, Freder. Rotwang then uses the robot to get revenge against Frederson and Freder, while pretending that he is using the robot for Joh Frederson's benefit.

Name

The name "Rotwang" is derived from a series of German words. "Rot" is German for red, "Wang" for cheek, "rotwangig" for rosy-cheeked. "Rotwang" therefore means "red-cheek" or "rosy-cheek".

Cultural influence

Rotwang was very influential in the iconography of the mad scientist archetype. His laboratory, with its profusion of Tesla coils and towering switch panels, baroque chemical equipment and pipework, became a stock feature of many later films, including many in the Frankenstein series. Like Victor Frankenstein, he attempts to "play God" by creating life, only to be defeated and destroyed in the end by his own creation (and, indirectly, his own hubris).

Other appearances

Rotwang (along with Maria, his robot) appears as a member of The Twilight Heroes, a German analogue to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, in the graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier.

Rotwang existed at some point in the DC Universe, where his robot creation became the time traveling villainess Mekanique. Mekanique claims to have traveled to the era of the All-Star Squadron to alter history for her master, and that she succeeded; whether this is true is unknown. Rotwang himself did not appear in the comic.

In the novel Superman's Metropolis, Lex Luthor is cast in Rotwang's role.