 Gottschalk was born in Aachen, the third of four children to Benjamin and Rosa Gottschalk.He choose to study medicine, from 1912 he attended the Universities of Munich, Freiburg im Breisgau and Bonn; the War interrupted his studies, but he completed them in 1920 graduating MD from the University of Bonn.He completed clinical work experience at the medical schools of Frankfurt am Main and Würzburg and physiology-biochemistry studies at Bonn, that led to his first publications, an award from the University of Madrid and an invitation to work at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Experimental Therapy and Biochemistry with Carl Neuberg.