Biography

Naively insisted that his Jewish wife accompany him to a film industry Artist's Association in 1941 Germany. At the dinner Nazi Propaganda head Joseph Goebbels was charmed by Mrs. Gottschalk until he was informed that she was Jewish. Goebbels personally told Joachim he had to be divorced from her - so she could be sent away and he could continue his successful acting career. Unable to leave the country and unwilling to abandon his family to certain death in a concentration camp, Joachim, his wife, Meta (b. 13 August 1902), and their eight year old son Michael (b. 19 February 1933) sealed themselves in the family home and gassed themselves to death.

As most people feared the Nazi authorities, only some courageous colleagues including Brigitte Horney, Gustav Knuth and Werner Hinz attended his funeral (1941).

On 6 November 1941, minutes before the expected arrival of the Gestapo at their house in Berlin-Grunewald, Gottschalk and his wife committed suicide by gas poisoning after sedating their son, who died with them. Though warned by Minister Goebbels, Brigitte Horney and Wolfgang Liebeneiner, as well as other artists like Gustav Knuth, Hans Brausewetter, Werner Hinz, and Ruth Hellberg attended the funeral.

During an engagement in Stuttgart, he met with his later wife, the Jewish actress Meta Wolff (1902-1941). Both married on 3 May 1930 in Halberstadt, shortly before Hitler came to power. They had a son, Michael, who was born in February 1933.

The German Post-war movie Marriage in the Shadows (1947) is based on the tragic events, surrounding his family's death.