Linguistic experts disagree about the etymological meaning of the name "Schutter". The word "Schutter" is probably derived from the early Germanic form scutro, which means "fast flowing water". Scutro, which includes the Indo-Germanic root sceud, also allows interpretation in the sense of "enclosing" or "impoundment of water" and may refer to the plethora of embankments, dams and mills on the Schutter. In addition to the municipalities of Schuttertal and Schutterwald, Schutterzell, a district of Neuried also bear the name of the river in their place names. The name of the Schutterlindenberg hill in Lahr also comes from the name of the river.
Use
Passing through 19 towns and villages, the Schutter used to be an important source of energy for commercial traders for centuries. According to the 1925 Baden Hydropower Register, no less than 36 hydroelectric power stations operated on the Schutter with a total of 47 waterwheels, 12 electricity generator stations with 17 turbines, including house and farm mills, industrial mills, hammer forges, electricity works, oil mills, barley presses and sawmills. The water of the Schutter was also used to irrigate meadows. Today still recognizable meadow-watering systems are found in the parish of Friesenheim-Oberschopfheim, in Hohberg-Niederschopfheim, Kehl-Goldscheuer, Willstätt-Eckartsweier. So much water was impounded above mills or in specially constructed weirs, that the surface of the water was higher than the surrounding land and was discharged into irrigation channels. The largest water meadows were the Unterwassermatten, which was irrigated for about a hundred years before being abandoned in 1935. In the 2000s, the irrigation of the meadows of Eckartsweier and Kittersburg was put back into operation for ecological reasons. In the Oberschopfheimer Allmend, meadow irrigation was also restarted in 2014.
The Schutter has flooded time and again, for example in 1958, 1970, 1978, 1980 and 1987, drowning arable land and destroying roads, bridges and houses. The Schutter valley, Lahr and Rhine Plain were equally affected by floods caused by the Schutter. In addition to the many reports of floods in the localtown councils minutes, the Flood Cross in Schweighausen recalls a flood in 1895. On 6 June the farmer, Landolin Bauer, was carried away in the floodwaters together with his horse and cart. A cross was erected at the site of the accident above the farm of ''Stefisbauernhof;; in the Steig, in honor of the victim. In the years 1936 to 1938, the Schutter Relief Canal was built between Lahr-Dinglingen and Nonnenweier in order to protect the villages and towns alongside the Schutter in the Rhine Plain from flood permanently. In addition, two flood retention basins were built at Lahr-Kuhbach and Seelbach-Wittelbach. In the 1980s, the relevant municipalities founded the Schutter Mouth Flood Protection Association, headquartered in Kehl, to be responsible for flood protection on the lowland section of the Schutter. Between 1994 and 2007, 14 flood protection measures were carried out and some sections of the Schutter were re-naturalised.
