German Schafkopf


German Schafkopf is an old German card game and the forerunner of the popular modern games of Skat, Doppelkopf and Bavarian Schafkopf.
Today it is hardly ever played in its original form, but there are a number of regional derivations.

History

Schafkopf appears to have developed in the early 19th century, although it is not clear when its modern-day counterpart, sometimes called Bavarian Schafkopf, emerged. In 1811, it is described as "a cute little game with chalk and collection bag pennies". In 1853, however, Von Alvensleben describes 'Schaafkopf' as being very common, especially with the lower classes perhaps due to its ordinary name, but that it also went under the "more noble" names of Society, Conversation or Denunciation. He hypothesises that the name comes from the practice of drawing the lines denoting points scored in the form of a stylised sheep's head. He goes on to describe in detail no less that nine variants of 'Schaafkopf', but states clearly that the original one was a four-hand, point-trick, team game with 4 Unters as top trumps and trump suit nominated by the bid winner, that was normally played for beer. Other variants for four, six or eight players variously use six Wenzels or eight Wenzels. Some use Bells as the permanent trump suit and at least one is a plain-trick game. The variants are shown in brief [|below]. They are played by teams of two, with 32 cards and variable trumps, and are point-trick games except where shown:
  1. Four players, four Wenzels – Urschafkopf or Ur-Schafkopf i.e. 'Ancient Schafkopf'.
  2. Four players, six Wenzels
  3. Four players, eight Wenzels
  4. Four players, four Wenzels, Bells, no teams, plain-trick – Schellen-Schafkopf i.e. 'Bell Schafkopf'.
  5. Four players, six Wenzels, Bells
  6. Six players, six Wenzels, Bells, 36 cards
  7. Four players, twelve Wenzels, Bells, 2 x 24 cards
  8. Six players, twelve Wenzels, Bells, 2 x 24 cards
  9. Eight players, sixteen Wenzels, Bells, 2 x 32 cards
No. 3 appears to be an early version of Bavarian Schafkopf, although the latter has Hearts as permanent trumps in the 'normal game'. Modern Wendish Schafkopf resembles no. 5 but has eight Wenzels; likewise Doppelkopf looks like an evolution of no. 7 to have eight Wenzels and an extra top trump, the Ten of Hearts.

Rules

The following rules appear to be based on Grupp and resemble those of von Alversleben's Type A [|above], the original Schafkopf game.

Cards

Players and cards

German Schafkopf is played with 4 players and 32 cards which, depending on the region, may be German or French decks. The players form 2 permanent partnerships.

Card values

Card ranking

The ranking of cards cards within the individual suits is as follows :
Ace > King > Queen > 10 > 9 > 8 > 7
The hierarchy of the cards and their sequence within the trumps are similar to those in Bavarian Schafkopf and Skat. However, in German Schafkopf the 10 ranks between the Queen or Ober and 9, in all suits even though it is worth ten points.

Trumps

As in Skat, the highest trumps are the 4 Jacks or Unters in the sequence Clubs, Spades, Hearts and Diamonds or Acorns, Leaves, Hearts and Bells. The remaining trumps are specified by the player who is the declarer by naming the trump suit at the outset. The cards of the trump suit then follow in the aforementioned sequence.

Partnerships

German Schafkopf is a partnership card game, but unlike Bavarian Schafkopf or Doppelkopf partners are not announced during the course of the game, but are permanent as in Bridge: the players facing one another are automatically partners. The seating order is determined by the drawing of playing cards before the game begins: the players who have picked the two highest cards are partners and sit opposite one another. In another variation, the players with the two black queens form a partnership.

Gameplay

Dealing

After the cards have been shuffled and cut, each player is dealt a total of eight playing cards in clockwise fashion.

Declarations

After the deal, starting clockwise each player announces the maximum possible number of trumps in their hand by adding the jacks and the longest suit.
The player with the highest number of possible trumps takes the lead in the game and names the trump suit.
If two players announce the same number of possible trumps, then the one with the higher number of trump points wins ; if this number is also the same, the higher trump wins.

Forced game

If none of the players can declare at least five trumps, the player with the Jack of Clubs must take the lead; if he loses, it only counts as single game points.

Solo games

As in Bavarian Schafkopf and Doppelkopf, solo games are also possible in German Schafkopf. Here, a solo player plays against the other three players.

Play

Players must follow suit. If a player cannot do so, any card may be played.

Scoring

There are three types of games won:
In a forced game, however, a winner who did not choose trumps gets the same as one who did.
For each game point won, the winner draws a line on a sheet of paper. The game is won by the first player to complete draw nine dashes in the shape of a sheep's head, the Schafkopf: four dashes arranged in a rectangle form the shape of the head, two dashes form the eyes, two more the horns and a single dash in the middle represents the nose.

Variants

The game described is the earliest form of German Schafkopf. Apart from Bavarian Schafkopf and the other early variants mentioned above, further variants have been developed, some in different regions. These include:
In an East German book of game rules there are the following variations of German Schafkopf which appear to reflect, in part, von Alversleben's variants:
  1. Classic Schafkopf: as described, Jacks/Wenzel are always trumps, the player with the so-called 'old man', the Jack of Clubs or the Unter of Acorns, must choose trumps if all pass or cannot bid more than 5 trumps.
  2. Schafkopf with six Wenzeln and changing trumps: Queen of Clubs and Queen of Spades and Queen of Diamonds ) are declared as trumps and outrank the old man. The player with the old man calls trumps, if this has not been decided beforehand by the bidding process.
  3. Schafkopf with four Wenzels and remaining trumps: Jacks/Wenzel and Diamonds/Bells are always trumps.

    Footnotes

Literature