1928:

Born Horst-Hermann Fritz Nikolaus Gottschalk on January 7 in Hannover, Germany to Adolf Heinrich August Gottschalk, civil engineer, and Martha Katharina Johanna Gottschalk (née Becker). Older sister Hilde born in 1920.

1936:

Like most children of his generation, forced to join the Hitler Youth Movement. Attends boarding school.

1945:

At the end of World War II, Gottschalk escapes from a detention center and walks 400 miles from Munich to Hannover. Along the way American soldiers force him to play Russian roulette. Gottschalk’s father is detained in a Russian prisoner of war camp.

1946:

Attends Luther School (Lutherschule) in Hannover.

1949:

Father passes away. Gottschalk begins university studies.

1949-1951:

Completes four semesters of Biology, Psychology, and Chemistry at the University of Göttingen.

1951-1953:

Completes four semesters of Art instruction at the University of Art in Braunschweig (Hochschule für Bildene Künste, Braunschweig).

1952:

In the winter, Gottschalk travels to Denmark. In this year he declares his occupation as “Maler” (painter) instead of “Student” on official documents.

1953-1954:

Studies art for an additional semester in Dusseldorf at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf.

1954:

In May Gottschalk joins the Professional Union of Artists (Bund bildener Künstler für Nordwest Deutschland e. V.) in Hannover, Germany. Over the next several years he exhibits his work in Hannover, Munich, Bremen and Baden-Baden.

1956:

In June and July travels from northern England to the Netherlands.

1958:

Gottschalk’s close friend Hans Becker, a German geneticist with Fulbright to U.C. Berkeley, invites the artist to serve as the best man at his wedding in November. The artist’s first visit to California makes a big impression.

1959:

In August Gottschalk travels to New York via London on three-month visa. Later that year he marries Patricia Gundelfinger and officially immigrates to the United States. Lives in Berkeley with Patricia and her children. Now a resident of the United States, Gottschalk makes regular donations from sales of his work to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council and Museum.

1961:

From November 22 to December 16 has his first one-man exhibition of twenty large-scale collages at the Feingarten Gallery on Sutter Street in San Francisco (additional galleries in New York, Carmel and Los Angeles.) A number of works sell from this show. Advertising for Gottschalk’s one-man show at Feingarten strategically mimics the exhibition catalogue cover for the Museum of Modern Art’s famed “Art of Assemblage” exhibition (October 4 - November 12, 1961).

1962:

One-man exhibition of collages at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

1963:

Exhibits in a group show hosted by the Art Museum at U.C. Berkeley.

1964:

Represented in the Fourth Winter Invitational of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. Contributes to small group exhibition “The Art of Collage” hosted by the Walnut Creek Civic Arts Center. The exhibition features Gottschalk’s collages with work by Robert Arneson and Louis Gutierrez. Feingarten Gallery in San Francisco closes. Gottschalk no longer has gallery representation. Marriage to Patricia starts to fail.

1965:

Divorces first wife. Begins work as a chemical technician for Dymo, a label company based in Berkeley.

1969:

Moves to Sebastopol where he lives with Paul and Ginette Cox. Studio fire destroys much of his early work.

1971:

Marries Barbara Tuttle, a teacher. In the midst of their courtship, Gottschalk creates roughly 70 highly realistic botanical drawings of local and foreign plants, some including letters or poems to Barbara. In May the artist completes his painting Ice Plant, which he presents as a wedding gift to his wife. In the summer the couple move to a house in Fairfax, California, where they live until 1985. Gottschalk resumes work as a chemical technician. In this year he begins compiling a complete record of his paintings, a copious journal that denotes the dimensions, titles, and provenance of each work.

1972:

Exhibition with Lucien Labaudt Gallery in San Francisco.

1973:

In March officially retires from Dymo and devotes full attention to painting and gardening. From the mid-70s until the end of his life creates a significant body of roughly 160 paintings, what he eventually considers his best work.

1978:

Exhibition with Pantheon Gallery in San Francisco.

1979-1981:

Representation with Will Stone Gallery in San Francisco. In 1980 has exhibition with Patrick Gallery in San Francisco. In 1981 has exhibition with Northern California Arts in Sacramento.

1984:

Exhibition at Galerie Factor in San Anselmo, California.

1985-1986:

Gottschalk and his wife Barbara move to Iverness, California. The artist takes a break from painting for a year. The couple travels to Germany and other parts of Europe.

1986:

Gottschalk and wife Barbara move to Bainbridge Island.

1987:

Exhibition with John Milton Gallery in Fairfax and Gallery JBM in San Francisco.

1990-1992:

Represented by The Collection in Seattle, Washington. In 1991 exhibits with Foster White Gallery in Seattle.

1992-2000:

Represented by Harbor Gallery, Bainbridge Island.

1993-1998:

Represented by Michael Pierce Gallery in Seattle.

1996:

Diagnosed with kidney cancer; initial treatments are successful. Creates important final paintings in the next year including Prodigal Son (1997).

1998:

In June passes away from complications with returning cancer. Memorial in his honor attended by family and friends.

2000:

Posthumous exhibition from November through December, “Horst Gottschalk: A Marin Painter’s World of Color” at the Claudia Chapline Gallery in Stinson Beach, California.

2002:

Horst Gottschalk Estate founded by step-son Douglas Tuttle. Barbara Gottschalk serves as the executor of the Estate.