Gotthardt has been since 2020 an alternate member of the European Committee of Regions. A member of the Bavarian Parliament since 2018, where he is chairman of the Committee on Federal and European Affairs and Regional Relations and a member of the Committee on State Budget and Financial Matters. His experience in European politics includes working from 2014 for European parliamentarian, or MEP, Martin Kastler, and MEP Arne Gericke and as a parliamentary assistant to MEP Emilia Müller. He also worked in the German Bundestag as research assistant to Gerda Hasselfeldt, deputy parliamentary group chairman and later vice-president of the Bundestag. He also worked as a consultant for education and public relations to the employers' association of the chemical industry. Gotthardt was a freelance journalist at 15 years old for the Mittelbayerische Zeitung He studied political science and the German language and literature at the University of Regensburg. He was born on 3 June 1977 in Dallackenried. He and his family live in the Upper Palatinate.