towns in the German Empire to have it. In the same year, the lighting on Unter den Linden in Berlin was electrified. On 1 April 1909, the town bought the power station for 110,000 gold marks, and it has been owned by the town ever since. By 1955, the network switched from direct current to three-phase alternating current, and it stopped generating its own electricity. In 1928 and 1929, Schüttorf acquired a town watermain. From 28 December 1970, the town works also began supplying natural gas. Today, the two local swimming pools are also owned by the town works. Medical institutions On 17 October 1904, the manufacturer Hermann Schlikker endowed the town with 250,000 gold marks to build a hospital. The Krankenhaus Annaheim with 40 beds was opened in 1907. It was named after Schlikker's late wife. In the 1980s, a nursing home run by the Evangelical-Reformed church was made part of the hospital. The hospital, however, had never been solvent, and was closed in 1996. In the building arose a healthcare centre to which medical and physiotherapeutic practices also belong. Today, there are nine physicians, two veterinarians and six dentists in practice in Schüttorf. Culture and sightseeing Schüttrupper Platt In Schüttorf, Low German is traditionally spoken. For a few years now, people have been moved to preserve the local dialect, the Schüttrupper Platt. The Joint Community's homeland club (Heimatverein) for instance stages regular events under the title Wij kürt ock Platt. There is a Low German theatre group. At the primary school in German lessons, the local dialect is discussed and there also appear literature and newspaper articles in Low German. Buildings Besides the “Great Church” (the Evangelical-Reformed Church of Saint Lawrence), the Town Hall is particularly worth seeing. It is a two-story stone-block building made of Bentheim sandstone with crow-stepped gables from the 15th century, in which Schüttorf's ellwand is kept. This is a 68 cm-long metal bar which served for calibration. On the marketplace before the town hall is a bronze statue of a woman leading two goats. Right next door to the town hall stands the Catholic Church. Behind the church school is found the old Princely watermill from 1914. It is the only preserved mill of many that Schüttorf once had and it lies on a kolk pothole surrounded by old weeping willows. Also in Schüttorf, there is a whole range of residential buildings that