Karl Ferdinand Gutzkow (17 March 1811 – 16 December 1878) was a German writer notable in the Young Germany movement of the mid-19th century.

Born in Berlin, his father was an advisor of the prince. Young Gutzkow studied theology and philosophy under such luminaries as Hegel and Schleiermacher. Gutzkow started out as a collaborator of Wolfgang Menzel, but ended up his adversary.

His innovative novel Wally die Zweiflerin , which attacked both marriage and religion, garned Kutzow a three-month imprisonment, and was used as a pretext in order to ban the works of many other progressive writers, among them Heinrich Heine. Gutzkow was the editor of the Telegraph für Deutschland and was Germany's most influential critic. The novels Die Ritter vom Geist (1850/51) and Der Zauberer von Rom (1856/61) were very successful; Gutzkow used his new Simultantechnik in them. Gutzkow was never a revolutionary, and he became more conservative with age.

Gutzkow was one of the first Germans who tried to make a living by writing. With his play Uriel Acosta he stood up for the emancipation of the Jews, which he also did in other works.