Maria Karoline Elisabeth Gottschalk[a] (28 October 1912 – 14 September 1989) was a German-born Dutch historical geographer and professor.

In 1955, she obtained her doctorate cum laude with Historische Geografie van Westelijk Zeeuws-Vlaanderen[1] which was a poorly documented subject.

[1] 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.

[3][4] 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.