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Maria Karoline Elisabeth Gottschalk (28 October 1912 – 14 September 1989) was a German-born Dutch historical geographer and professor. She was noted for ''Stormvloeden en rivieroverstromingen in Nederland'' (Storm surges and river floods in the Netherlands), a three volume study into the historical storm surges and river floods, which is considered a standard work which corrected the existing theories behind storm surges.


Biography

Gottschalk was born on 28 October 1912 in
Mönchengladbach Mönchengladbach (, ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany, west of the Rhine, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Netherlands, Dutch border. Geography Municipal subdivisions Since 2009, th ...
, Germany. She became a teacher in Margraten, Netherlands. In 1938, she changed to Dutch nationality. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, she started to research the historical geography of Zeelandic Flanders, but lost her research papers during the war. In 1949, Gottschalk started studying social geography at the University of Utrecht, and graduated in 1952. In 1955, she obtained her
doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...
cum laude with ''Historische Geografie van Westelijk Zeeuws-Vlaanderen'' which was a poorly documented subject. In 1962, she became lector historical geography at the
University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...
. In 1971, Gottschalk published the first volume of ''Stormvloeden en rivieroverstromingen in Nederland'' in which she researched the storm surges and river floods before 1400, and corrected many errors in the existing history, and discovered surges which were based on legends instead of facts. She proved that many more factors played a role, and corrected the theories behind the development of the Zuiderzee and the Dollart. In 1977, the third and final volume was published which was described by the '' Leeuwarder Courant'' as the standard work on floods in the Netherlands. Gottschalk retired on 1 January 1978, and died on 14 September 1989 in
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
, at the age of 76.


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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gottschalk, Elisabeth 1912 births 1989 deaths People from Mönchengladbach Utrecht University alumni Academic staff of the University of Amsterdam Historical geographers Dutch women scientists 20th-century Dutch educators 20th-century Dutch women educators German emigrants to the Netherlands