Hans Pothorst

Hans Pothorst (c. 1440 – 1490) was a privateer, likely from the German city Hildesheim.

In 1925, researcher Sofus Larsen proposed that Pothhorst may have landed in North America, along with Didrik Pining, in the 1470s, almost twenty years before Columbus' voyages of discovery. Scholars now view this as unlikely.