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- Joachim Gottschalk was born on April 10, 1904 in Calau, Brandenburg, Germany. He was an actor, known for Die schwedische Nachtigall (1941), Du und ich (1938) and Das Mädchen von Fanö (1941). He was married to Meta Wolff. He died on November 6, 1941 in Berlin, Germany.
- SpouseMeta Wolff(May 3, 1930 - November 6, 1941) (his death, 1 child)
- ChildrenMichael Gottschalk
- 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).
- When the Nazi-Propaganda ministry discovered that Gottschalk's wife Meta was a Jew, he was faced with the choice to separate with his wife immediately or to be called up for the Wehrmacht and to be sent to the front. But Gottschalk feared: However he would decide, wife and son would come into a concentration camp anyway. Therefore he refused the judicial separation. After that his wife and their son got the information that they will be deported to Theresienstadt. Joachim Gottschalk applied for the permission to accompany his family, but the entreaty was rejected.
- 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.
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