Background
Gotthardt was born in Thalheim in the German Westerwald.
Gotthardt was born in Thalheim in the German Westerwald.
He attended the Oblate Congregation in the Limburg Province in the Netherlands from 1900 to 1905 and graduated as priest.
He was the first to set up missions in the Kavango Region and in Ovamboland, became the first Vicar Apostolic of Windhoek. He worked as Junior Lecturer directly after being ordained until 1907 and was then sent to Grootfontein in German South-West Africa. Soon after his arrival he in Namibia he led the sixth and seventh mission journeys to the Kavango region—a difficult assignment considering that the leader of the indigenous population, Hompa (King) Nyangana of the VaGciriku was a fierce critic of all European influence, and particularly that of missionaries.
The previous five mission journeys into the Kavango had been unsuccessful but the seventh led to the establishment of a mission station at Nyangana in 1910 and at Andara in 1913.
Gotthardt also developed the first mission station in former Ovamboland, at Oshikuku, in 1924. Gotthardt was appointed Prefect Apostolic of Cimbebasia in 1921, replacing the retired Eugenio Klaeyle.
After serving 25 years in the position of Vicar, Pope Pius XII appointed him as Archbishop in 1951. After more than 50 years of service, Gotthardt resigned at the age of 80 in May 1961.
He died in Swakopmund on 3 August 1963.