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.

The Schutter initially flows westwards, then, after an almost right-angled bend, northwards through the municipalities of Schuttertal and Seelbach.

At the end of the last ice age, the Würm Glaciation), the Schutter flowed, like other Black Forest rivers, parallel to the Rhine in the still recognizable Kinzig-Murg Channel.

Today still recognizable meadow-watering systems are found in the parish of Friesenheim-Oberschopfheim, in Hohberg-Niederschopfheim, Kehl-Goldscheuer, Willstätt-Eckartsweier (west of the village and in the Schutterwald meadows).

The largest water meadows were the Unterwassermatten (today a nature reserve), which was irrigated for about a hundred years before being abandoned in 1935.

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.