was sold; in 1390, it was expanded. Building work on the choir in today's building began on the Thursday after Corpus Christi in 1477. It was finished on Christmas Eve 1478. Work on the nave began in 1500, while work continued on the square west tower, which had an eight-sided pyramidal cupola, until 1535. This tower burnt six times, however, in 1684, 1703, 1799, 1817 (twice in as many days) and 1889 after being struck by lightning. A legend has it that the last tower fire on 8 February 1889 was quenched with milk, which in the fire's heat quickly dried and formed a crust, smothering the fire. The original bells for the tower came from the years 1502 and 1772; however, in 1917, these bells had to be handed over and melted down for war requirements. Today there are six bells hanging in the tower, among them an old firebell from 1435 that was spared in 1917. The church's organ is a two-manualled instrument with tin pipes. it was built in 1963 by the Swiss organ-building business Th. Kuhn. The Catholic Church of Mary (Marienkirche) was built in 1868. It contains a sandstone Madonna from the late 16th century. Before this church was built, Schüttorf's Catholics had to make do with the chapel at Altena Castle. After the Second World War, there first came a New Apostolic church and in 1955 the Lutheran church. The Lutheran church has been called Christophorus-Kirche (“St. Christopher’s Church”) since 1992. In this same year, a small mosque was founded in an old workshop. Since 2004 there has also been a House of God for the Free Christian community. Furthermore, Schüttorf has, besides an Evangelical and a Catholic, also an old Jewish cemetery. Politics Joint Community When Lower Saxony was founded in 1946, Schüttorf became part of this Bundesland. On 14 December 1970 the Joint Community (Samtgemeinde) of Schüttorf was founded. This at first consisted of nine communities, the town of Schüttorf itself and the communities of Engden, Drievorden, Neerlage, Wengsel, Ohne, Quendorf, Samern and Suddendorf. Later, the communities of Engden and Drievorden were merged into the community of Engden, and likewise the communities of Neerlage and Wengsel into the community of Isterberg, so that the Joint Community now consisted of seven communities. The Joint Community's work is to take charge of collective planning work, to promote tourism and to take charge of disposing