Walther Gothan

Walther Ulrich Eduard Friedrich Gothan (26 August 1879 in Woldegk – 30 December 1954 in Berlin) was a German paleobotanist, known for his studies of Carboniferous flora.

He studied mining and geology at the mining academies in Clausthal and Berlin, and botany and chemistry at the University of Berlin. In 1905 he received his doctorate from the University of Jena with the thesis, Zur Anatomie lebender und fossiler gymnospermen Hölzer.

From 1903 onward, he worked as an assistant at the Prussian Geological Survey. He taught classes in paleobotany at the Mining Academy and at Technische Universität Berlin, In 1951 he founded the Arbeitsstelle für Paläobotanik within the Academy. His name is also associated with the Gothankammen, a mountain ridge on Spitsbergen.