Schultheiß

In medieval Germany, the Schultheiß (German: [ˈʃʊltaɪs] ⓘ) was the head of a municipality (akin to today's office of mayor), a Vogt or an executive official of the ruler.

As official (villicus) it was his duty to order his assigned village or county (villicatio) to pay the taxes and perform the services due to the ruler.

[1] The title first appears in the Edictum Rothari of 643 AD, where it is spelled in post-Roman Latin as sculdahis.

[1] It also appears in several European languages: In Hungarian as soltész, in Slovak as šoltýs and škultét, in Italian as scoltetto and sculdascio, in Medieval Latin as sculdasius, in Polish as sołtys, in Romanian as șoltuz, and in Dutch as schout.

Schultheiß is also the basis for one of the most common German surnames, existing in many variations such as Schulz, Schultz, Scholz, etc., corresponding to the local variants of the pronunciation of the office.