Saint Gottschalk (or Godescalc) (Latin: Godescalcus) (died 6 June 1066) is a prince of the Obotrite confederacy from 1043 to 1066.
He establishes a Slavic kingdom on the Elbe (in the area of present-day northeastern Germany) in the mid-11th century.
His object in life seems to have been to collect the scattered tribes of the Slavs into one kingdom, and to make that kingdom Christian.
Gottschalk effects the Christianization of the Slavic tribes of the Elbe.
He organizes missions of German priests and founds monasteries at Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, Ratzeburg, Lübeck, and Lenzen, erecting the first three into dioceses.
He himself often accompanies the missionaries on their work and augments their message with his own explanations and instructions.
In all this, he is supported by the efforts of Adalbert, Archbishop of Hamburg.
However, the Obotrite nobility and peasantry largely remain pagan.
