"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. The name originates from this function: Schuld ‘debt’ + heißen ‘to order’. Later, the title was also used for the head of a town (Stadtschultheiß) or village (Dorfschultheiß).
The title was originally spelled in Old High German as sculdheizo and in Middle High German as schultheize; it was latinised as scultetus or sculteus. Alternative spellings include Schultheis, Schulte or Schulze, or in Switzerland Schultheiss. It also appears in several European languages: In Hungarian as soltész, in Italian as scoltetto and sculdascio, in Medieval Latin as sculdasius, in Polish as sołtys and Romanian as șoltuz." - (en.wikipedia.org 29.03.2020)
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