From Heidi
Fräulein Rottenmeier
Strict city housekeeper • Rules and order
The strict, easily alarmed housekeeper of the Sesemann house in Frankfurt.
Who is Fräulein Rottenmeier?
Fräulein Rottenmeier is the strict housekeeper of the Sesemann house in Frankfurt, and she is shocked by Heidi’s country clothes and friendly questions. She cares a great deal about manners and gets startled very easily, from tiny kittens to rumors of a ghost. She tells Heidi not to talk about the mountains, which makes Heidi feel even more homesick.
Fräulein Rottenmeier is a character in Heidi, the 1881 novel by Johanna Spyri, retold for ages 6–9 by Sean Lee.
What is Fräulein Rottenmeier like?
- strict
- fussy
- jumpy
Fräulein Rottenmeier’s story
Fräulein Rottenmeier has run the Sesemann household for years, and Herr Sesemann leaves her in sole charge when he is away. She is a proud woman with a tall cap and a head full of rules, and she is shocked when a small, rosy-cheeked girl from the mountains arrives instead of the older companion she expected.
She changes Heidi’s name to Adelaide, sends her to lessons she cannot follow and scolds her for everything from the kittens to the stale rolls Heidi hides in the wardrobe. She is not exactly cruel, only worried about what people will think. She wants Heidi to be a proper city girl, and she cannot see why Heidi is so unhappy.
The book’s funniest and most revealing moment comes when the servants report a ghost. Fräulein Rottenmeier believes that someone from the family’s past is haunting the house, and the whole household is in an uproar. She is not part of the happy ending in the Alps, but she is not made out to be wicked either.
“What? what? that’s no Christian name for a child; you were not christened that.”
A moment to remember
When Heidi brings two little kittens into the study, Fräulein Rottenmeier shrieks and hops up onto a chair as if they were lions.
Family and friends
- Heidi: young charge she finds hard to manage
- Clara Sesemann: young lady of the house
- Grandmamma Sesemann: visitor who outranks her
- Doctor Classen: doctor who solves the ghost mystery
Talk about it
Fräulein Rottenmeier wanted Heidi to act like a city girl. Why is it important to let people be themselves?
Questions about Fräulein Rottenmeier
- Why does Fräulein Rottenmeier call Heidi Adelaide?
- She says Heidi is no Christian name for a child. Dete tells her Heidi was christened Adelaide, after her mother, so Fräulein Rottenmeier uses it.
- What is Fräulein Rottenmeier afraid of in Heidi?
- She is afraid of the kittens Heidi brings home, and she is alarmed by the rumor of a ghost in the house.
- What is her job in the Sesemann house?
- She is the housekeeper. Herr Sesemann leaves her in charge of the household and the servants, with the rule that his daughter Clara must have a say in everything.
Read the story in
Heidi
Ages 6–9, 72 pages
