Walther Ulrich Eduard Friedrich Gothan (26 August 1879 in Woldegk – 30 December 1954 in Berlin) was a German paleobotanist, known for his studies of Carboniferous flora.
In 1905 he received his doctorate from the University of Jena with the thesis, Zur Anatomie lebender und fossiler gymnospermen Hölzer.
He taught classes in paleobotany at the Mining Academy and at Technische Universität Berlin,[1] where in 1926 he became an associate professor.
In 1938 he was named a departmental head at the Prussian Geological Survey, and after World War II, was associated with work done at the Academy of Sciences of the GDR.
[2] The fossil genera of Gothania, Gothaniella and Gothanopteris commemorate his name, the latter genus being described by Gen-ichi Koidzumi in 1936.