Gerald Asamoah scored in the 65th minute to bring Schalke back to into the race for the Bundesliga title with a narrow victory over Hertha Berlin.
Asamoah's header was the game's only goal as Schalke finally won an important game after losing to title contenders Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen and Stuttgart over the past four weeks.
Fred Rutten's Schalke moved into sixth place with the win - just one point from a UEFA Cup spot and eight points adrift of leaders Hoffenheim.
Going into the game, Hertha still had an outside chance of being top for the winter break, but Lucien Favre's team did not venture forward much and remained on 30 points, dropping to fourth place.
Schalke were unable to take advantage of a huge mistake by Kaka in the fourth minute as the Hertha defender mis-struck the ball and it landed at the feet of Kevin Kuranyi, who pushed forward but could not beat keeper Jaroslav Drobny from six yards.
The hosts again went close after 16 minutes as Heiko Westermann sent a dangerous cross into the box where Hertha defender Josip Simunic was able to clear over his crossbar with a charging Kuranyi lurking behind.
Hertha had the ball in the net two minutes later but it was disallowed as Gojko Kacar was ruled to have pushed Mladen Krstajic.
Schalke continued to control the run of play and Asamoah had room for a header on 34 minutes but was just off target.
The hosts pushed and pushed, but missed another good chance 10 minutes after the break. Westermann's cross was deflected to Halil Altintop who could not head home from three yards.
Altintop again saw a deflection work in his favor three minutes later and this time he blasted well over the bar from five yards.
Asamoah finally converted a chance for Schalke after 65 minutes. Drobny misjudged a cross from the left wing to the far post where Asamoah headed home from two yards.
Schalke missed yet another chance five minutes later as Fabian Ernst's 23-yard strike went just wide of goal.
And the Schalke backline was able to fend off a meagre Hertha attack to claim the three points.
