Heidi
Fräulein Rottenmeier
The strict housekeeper
The stern housekeeper of the Sesemann mansion, who is horrified by Heidi's manners. She is easily flustered and hopeless at coping with surprises.
Fräulein Rottenmeier runs the Sesemann house in Frankfurt and supervises Clara. She believes in good manners, a rigid schedule and a tidy house, and she is scandalized by Heidi, whom she calls a wild, uncultivated creature. She insists on calling the girl Adelheid.
She is haughty, superstitious and easily alarmed, which makes her a comic figure. She cannot cope with kittens, servants treated as equals or a girl who cannot learn her ABCs. For all her stiffness, she is a figure of fun more than of menace, and the household is often brighter for her mistakes. Heidi's mountain freedom keeps colliding with her love of order, and the order always loses.
“What is this? A wild, uncultivated creature!”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
Rottenmeier interrupts the kitten scene, screams and jumps on a chair, and declares Heidi unteachable when she cannot learn the alphabet. She orders Tinette to throw out Heidi's hoard of white rolls.
She is terrified by a ghost story in the house, and writes to Herr Sesemann at once. The ghost turns out to be Heidi sleepwalking, and Dr. Classen's verdict ends Heidi's time in her house. She remains a stiff figure in the city, while Heidi's mountain world laughs at rules.
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