Schale, Westfalen

Date: About 0890 [unknown]
Location: Schale, Hopsten, Steinfurt, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland
Surname/tag: german_roots

Schale is a village and district at the northernmost tip of the Westphalian region of the Tecklenburger Land in Germany, only about 50km from the Netherlands border. Since 1975 it has been part of the municipality of Hopsten in the district of District of Steinfurt.

Contents 1 Details 2 History 2.1 Governance 2.2 Coat of arms 3 Genealogy 3.1 Sources

Details

History

Schale (ancient: Scaldi) has been inhabited since prehistoric times. It is first mentioned in the historical record around the year 890, when five people in Schale were named in the tax registers of Werden Abbey. Schale is referenced again in 1150.

By 1226, knights of Schale were verifiably affiliated with the Counts of the independent County of Tecklenburg, part of the Holy Roman Empire.

Around 1534-5, Count Konrad of Tecklenburg purchased the Schale Monastery (founded 1278) and converted it to a Protestant parish, which it remains.

Schale remained an exclave of Tecklenburg even when Tecklenburg lost other lands to Osnabrück and Münster in the Schmalkaldic War 1546-7, and continued under its governance (with a brief period as an independent municipality during the Napoleonic occupation 1811-1816), through many reconstitutions, until being reorganized into Steinfurt in 1975.

Governance

		Heiliges Römisches Reich	Holy Roman Empire
1226	1707	Grafschaft Tecklenburg, Heiliges Römisches Reich	County of Tecklenburg, Holy Roman Empire
1707	1806	Grafschaft Tecklenburg, Königreich Preußen, Heiliges Römisches Reich	County of Tecklenburg, Kingdom of Prussia, Holy Roman Empire
		Napoleonische Kriege	Napoleonic Wars
1806	1811	Grafschaft Tecklenburg, Großherzogtum Berg, Rheinbund	County of Tecklenburg, Grand Duchy of Berg, Confederation of the Rhine
1811	1813	selbständige Gemeinde, Département de l'Ems-Supérieur/Ober-Ems, Französisches Kaiserreich	independent municipality, Ems-Supérieur/Ober-Ems, French Empire
1813	1815	selbständige Gemeinde, Generalgouvernement zwischen Weser und Rhein, Zentralverwaltungsdepartement für die besetzten Gebiete	independent municipality, General Government between the Weser and the Rhine, Central Administrative Department for the Occupied Territories
		Königreich Preußen	Kingdom of Prussia
1815	1871	Kreis Tecklenburg, Provinz Westfalen, Königreich Preußen	District of Tecklenburg, Province of Westphalia, Kingdom of Prussia
		Preußen im Deutschen Reich	Prussia in the German Empire
1871	1918	Kreis Tecklenburg, Provinz Westfalen, Bundesstaat Preußen, Deutsches Reich	District of Tecklenburg, Province of Westphalia, Federal State of Prussia, German Empire
1918	1945	Kreis Tecklenburg, Provinz Westfalen, Freistaat Preußen, Deutsches Reich	District of Tecklenburg, Province of Westphalia, Free State of Prussia, German Empire
		Alliierte Verwaltung	Allied Occupation
1945	1946	Kreis Tecklenburg, Britische Besatzungszone, Alliierter Kontrollrat	District of Tecklenburg, British Occupation Zone, Allied Control Council in Germany
1946	1949	Kreis Tecklenburg, Land Nordrhein-Westfalen, Alliierter Kontrollrat	District of Tecklenburg, State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Allied Control Council in Germany
		Deutschland	Germany
1949	1974	Kreis Tecklenburg, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Bundesrepublik Deutschland	District of Tecklenburg, State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Federal Republic of Germany
1975	present	Gemeinde Hopsten, Kreis Steinfurt, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Bundesrepublik Deutschland	Municipality of Hopsten, District of Steinfurt, State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Federal Republic of Germany

Coat of arms

"In red, a silver (white) right-angled ladder, accompanied by a silver (white) lily pad at the top." The ladder, a scala dei, refers to Schale's historical name Scaldi, and the lily pad references its historical affiliation to the County of Tecklenburg (whose traditional arms feature three lily pads).

Genealogy

The Rev. Dr. David H. Koss, an American descendant of migrants from Schale, researched Schale and the surrounding areas extensively for many decades, and published the Schale Newsletter from 1984 to at least 1997. Upon his death in 2010 his written materials (almost entirely paper) were passed on to a cousin, Gloria Landwer Scott.

A RootsWeb tree, schaleplus -- Families from Schale, Westfalen & Sonneborn, Lippe (plus in-laws & sundry kin), captures many of the conclusions from their combined work (with limited reference to primary sources).

Sources

• Evangelische Kirche Schale (Kr. Tecklenburg). "Kirchenbuch, 1716-1967." FHL films 530,820 through 530,824. Though four of these films have been digitized, access to the digital images is restricted (not available even onsite at the FHL); therefore, as of 2022, these records are available only on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.
• Evangelische Kirche Schale (Kr. Tecklenburg). "Kirchenbuchduplikat, 1815-1874." FHL film 1,049,999. As of 2022, this record is available only on microfilm at the Family History Library.
• Schale (Westfalen), Standesamt. "Germany, Preußen, Westfalen, Schale, Zivilstandsregister, 1874-1938." DGS 103,528,832 through 103,528,903. As of 2022, these records are stored in the Granite Mountain Record Vault of the Family History Library and are not available for circulation.