Schüttorf

Schuttorf 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 Schuttorf forms with the surrounding communities the Joint Community (Samtgemeinde) of Schuttorf. 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 Schuttorf 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. Schuttorf 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 Schuttorf 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, Schuttorf 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 Emsburen. There is found - only 2 km from Schuttorf - a small conservation area with a heath pond.
Further reading
Publisher Town of Schuttorf: 700 Jahre Stadt Schuttorf - Beitrage zur Geschichte - 1295-1995. Druckerei Hellendoorn, Schuttorf 1995,
(English-French-Dutch-German)
Publisher Joint Community of Schuttorf / Volkshochschule des Landkreises Grafschaft Bentheim: Schuttorf * Stadt im Wandel. A. Hellendoorn, Bad Bentheim 1997,
Rainer Lahmann-Lammert and Michael Munch: Hinter jedem Stein eine Geschichte - Auf Spurensuche in Schuttorf. Lechte Druck, Emsdetten
Hermann Harmsen: 1111 plattdutsche Sprockskes up Schuttrupper Platt. Schuttorf 2000
Herbert Wagner: Die Gestapo war nicht allein... Politische Sozialkontrolle und Staatsterror im deutsch-niederlandischen Grenzgebiet 1929 - 1945. LIT-Verlag, Munster 2004 (contains, among other things, Schuttorf in the Third Reich).
Heinrich Specht (publisher): Die glaserne Kutsche, Bentheimer Sagen, Erzahlungen und Schwanke. Heimatverein der Grafschaft, 1967.
Sources
Hermann Abels: Die Ortsnamen des Emslandes in ihrer sprachlichen und kulturgeschichtlichen Bedeutung. Schoningh, Paderborn 1927
Heinrich Funke: Zur Fruhgeschichte der Stadt Schuttorf. 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 Schuttorf textile industry
schuettorf.de Schuttorf business directory
gbiu.de Schuttorf 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 Schuttorf
County of Bentheim (district)