Gottschalk Family
Joachim Gottschalk was born in April of 1904 in Calau, Prussia. Having worked on sea vessels for a short while in his early adulthood, his real passion and career was centered in the theatrical arts. It was during his spell with the touring theatre group Wurttembergische Volksbuhne Stuttgart between 1927 and 1928 that Gottschalk met his wife, Meta Wolff, an actress. Wolff, a Jewish woman, was contracted with the theatre in Halberstaddt; Gottschalk, a Protestant, was contracted with the theatre in Zwickau.
The couple wed in May of 1930 and Meta converted to her husband’s Protestant faith. When, in 1931, Joachim signed a contract with the Leipzig theatre, Meta soon after resigned her contract in Halberstadt. Their son, Michael, was born in February 1933. With the installation of Hitler to power and the rise of the Nazi party, an effect came through with the establishment of the Reichskulturkammer institution; actors were then required to prove their “Aryan” status with an “Aryan certificate” and membership to the Theaterkammer.
Although Meta had converted from Judaism, she was still considered Jewish in the eyes of the Nazi law and was prohibited from working as an actress. Due to the intermarriage, Joachim required a Special Performance Permit from the Ministry of Propaganda and People’s Enlightenment. In May 1936, Nazi officials attempted to remove Joachim from the theatre, but he was able to maintain his career in Frankfurt and continued to star in a number of motion pictures.
In 1937, Gottschalk performed the leading role in Die Verschworung des Fiesco zu Genua, which premiered at Berlin’s Volksbuhne. By December of the same year, the Department of the Hesse-Nassau sent a letter to the director of the Frankfurt theater to declare outrage at the part Joachim played in the first “Gau Culture Week” and demanded his removal due to his “Jewish relations”. He was fired by the theatre in January of 1938. This did not stop his career, however, as he signed a contract with Berlin’s Volksbuhne just a couple days later.
In the years following, Joachim starred in a number of projects, including Du und ich, Aufruhr in Damaskus, Flucht ins Dunkel, Eine Frau wie du, Ein Leben lang, and Das Madchen von Famo. Meta and their son Michael occasionally moved in accordance with Joachim’s filming locations, but the two were in the family apartment in Berlin when anti-Semitic riots affected the city. By May of 1941, Gottschalk had built a full film career that distinguished him as one of the most successful actors in the country. Goebbels, upon hearing that Joachim was to star in Die goldene Stadt, was affronted that the famous German actor was still married to a Jewish woman and seriously urged him to a divorce. When Joachim refused, Goebbels ordered that the actor be blacklisted and his wife and son to be deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp.
Unwilling to be separated from his family, Joachim lobbied to be sent with them to the camp. Goebbels, however, had other plans for the actor: he was to be inducted to the Wehrmacht, the German army. On November 6, 1941, Joachim and Meta made the decision to end their own lives and the life of their son by gas poisoning before the Gestapo could arrive at the family apartment in Berlin to separate them. Nazi censorship in the Ministry of Propaganda attempted to keep the family death a secret, and Nazi law prohibited Jews and non-Jews from sharing a grave. Regardless, the family is buried together at the Southwest Stahnsdorf Cemetery in Berlin.
Written by Carmelina Moersch