Joseph Gotthardt (16 December 1880 – 3 August 1963) was a Catholic missionary and later Bishop and Archbishop in South-West Africa (today Namibia).
[1] He worked as Junior Lecturer directly after being ordained until 1907 and was then sent to Grootfontein in German South-West Africa.
[2] 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.
[1] Gotthardt was appointed Prefect Apostolic of Cimbebasia in 1921, replacing the retired Eugenio Klaeyle.
When the prefecture became the Windhoek Vicariate soon thereafter, he became Vicar and was ordained as bishop at Hünfeld in Germany in 1924, becoming the leader of the Catholic Church in South-West Africa.