Schüttorf is a town in the County of Bentheim in southwesternmost Lower Saxony near the Dutch border and the boundary with Westphalia (North Rhine-Westphalia). The town of Schüttorf forms with the surrounding communities the Joint Community (Samtgemeinde) of Schüttorf. It is on the river Vechte, about 5 km east of Bad Bentheim, and 20 km southeast of Nordhorn.

Geography

Place and landscape description 
The town of Schüttorf is in southwesternmost Lower Saxony and in the westernmost part of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is about 10 km to the Dutch border. It is in a transitional zone between the Emsland and Westphalia.

The town is crossed through the middle southeast to northwest by the river Vechte, which farther downstream flows into the Netherlands. The town's highest point rises to 48 m above sea level. Schüttorf is in the foothills of the Bentheimer Berg, a great sandstone formation from the Cretaceous rising to 80 m and a wooded western outlier of the Teutoburg Forest. Only a small piece of the Bentheim Forest is in the town. All together, about 89 ha of woodland is found within the town, making up 8% of the town's total land area.

Neighbouring communities 
The town of Schüttorf mainly borders on other members of the Joint Community, namely Samern in the southeast, Quendorf in the northwest and Engden in the north. Within the district of the County of Bentheim, Schüttorf borders on the town of Bad Bentheim in the west. In the east, the town limit is also part of the boundary with the neighbouring district of Emsland, bordering there on Ahlde, an outlying centre of the community of Emsbüren. There is found – only 2 km from Schüttorf – a small conservation area with a heath pond.

Further reading 
 Publisher Town of Schüttorf: 700 Jahre Stadt Schüttorf – Beiträge zur Geschichte – 1295–1995. Druckerei Hellendoorn, Schüttorf 1995, 
 (English-French-Dutch-German)
 Publisher Joint Community of Schüttorf / Volkshochschule des Landkreises Grafschaft Bentheim: Schüttorf • Stadt im Wandel. A. Hellendoorn, Bad Bentheim 1997, 
 Rainer Lahmann-Lammert and Michael Munch: Hinter jedem Stein eine Geschichte – Auf Spurensuche in Schüttorf. Lechte Druck, Emsdetten
 Hermann Harmsen: 1111 plattdütsche Spröckskes up Schüttrupper Platt. Schüttorf 2000
 Herbert Wagner: Die Gestapo war nicht allein... Politische Sozialkontrolle und Staatsterror im deutsch-niederländischen Grenzgebiet 1929 - 1945. LIT-Verlag, Münster 2004 (contains, among other things, Schüttorf in the Third Reich).
 Heinrich Specht (publisher): Die gläserne Kutsche, Bentheimer Sagen, Erzählungen und Schwänke. Heimatverein der Grafschaft, 1967.

Sources 
 Hermann Abels: Die Ortsnamen des Emslandes in ihrer sprachlichen und kulturgeschichtlichen Bedeutung. Schöningh, Paderborn 1927
 Heinrich Funke: Zur Frühgeschichte der Stadt Schüttorf. In: Bentheimer Jahrbuch 1985. Verlag Heimatverein der Grafschaft Bentheim, Bad Bentheim 1984. 
 studiengesellschaft-emsland-bentheim.de Biography of Johann Wenning
 
 studiengesellschaft-emsland-bentheim.de Biography of Gerhard Schlikker and history of Schüttorf textile industry
 schuettorf.de Schüttorf business directory
 gbiu.de Schüttorf school history
 studiengesellschaft-emsland-bentheim.de Biography of Dr. Franz Scheuermann

References

Other websites 

 schuettorf.de Town’s webpage
 schuettorfer-ansichten.de Pictures of the town
 schuettorfer.de Further pages about the town of Schüttorf

County of Bentheim (district)