Carl Schotten (12 July 1853 – 9 January 1910) was a German chemist who, together with Eugen Baumann, discovered the Schotten-Baumann reaction.

Schotten was born as the third child of a syndic at the University of Marburg, his mother was a daughter of a law professor.

Although he lost his father at the age of two, his intellectual family background allowed him to receive a good education.

In 1881, he was invited by Emil du Bois-Reymond to become lecturer at the physiological institute at the University of Berlin.

His analysis of pyridine, piperidine and coniine paved the way for the determination of the structural relations within these three compounds.