German Schafkopf

German Schafkopf (German: Deutscher Schafkopf) is an old German, ace–ten card game that is still played regionally in variant form today. It is the forerunner of the popular modern games of Skat, Doppelkopf and Bavarian Schafkopf. It originated in Leipzig in the Electorate of Saxony. Today it is hardly ever played in its original form, but there are a number of important national and regional derivations.

The word, variously spelt Schafkopf, Schafskopf, Schaffskopf, Schafskopff, Schaafkopf and Schaafskopf, appears as early as the 16th century and meant "sheephead" or "sheep's head", but was also a pejorative term for a "fool". An early example is in the 1676 German-Italian dictionary, where "Schafskopff" is equated to "Dumshirn" i.e. "dumb head". In 1777, Adelung's dictionary records "Schafskopf" as the head of a sheep, but also as "Schafskopf or Schafkopf, an abusive term for a stupid, simple-minded person", but there is no reference to the game.

The card game of Schafkopf dates to the 18th century or earlier and is the oldest member of its eponymous family. It emerged in Leipzig, virtually all early references being published in that city. It first appears in Hartmann's play Die dankbare Tochter (1780) where Platz says "I think we'll play a Schaafkopf". A 1783 novel published in Leipzig describes the scene after a wedding dinner as the dining tables were cleared away and replaced by games tables: "here stood an Ombre table, there a noble Schafkopf was played, over there a game of forfeits, soon everybody was busy playing when suddenly the sound of the strings announced the arrival of the dance band..."; the fact that the author felt no need to explain what Schafkopf was suggests it was already well known at that time. According to a 1789 journal, Schafkopf was played in Schweidnitz in the Duchy of Silesia and may have derived its name from being played while drinking non-local beer which went under the name of Schöps in the 17th century, Schafkopf and Schöps being synonyms for a fool. In 1796, we learn that students at Leipzig University liked to repair to disreputable bars to play Solo or Schafkopf for a couple of Dreiers. In 1803, it is described as "a cute little game [played] with chalk and collection bag pennies".

In 1811, the rules of Schaafkopf are recorded for the first time by Paul Hammer who notes that it has several regional names including Societätsspiel ("social game"), Konversationsspiel ("conversation game") and Denunciationsspiel ("announcement game"), the latter "because originally the trump suit and number of trumps had to be announced for each game." Hammer says that the game is generally presumed to be called Schaafkopf ("sheep's head") because, as games were won, lines were drawn in the form of a head with horns. He recognises that the word means a naive and stupid person but argues that this name is quite inappropriate because there are few social games as enjoyable and uplifting as Schaafkopf. He goes on to describe in detail no less than nine variants of 'Schaafkopf', but states that the original one (his Type A) was a four-hand, point-trick, team game with 4 Unters as top trumps, known as Wenzels and a trump suit nominated by the bid winner. The game was normally played for beer. There were other variants for four, six or eight players with varying numbers of Wenzels. Some variants had Bells as the permanent trump suit and one was a plain-trick game; the rest being ace–ten games with the tens ranking low. The variants (denoted by their original letters) are tabulated below. Except where indicated, they are played by teams of two in fixed partnerships: Von Alvensleben (1853) largely reprints Hammer, but adds a tenth, quite different, version called Wendish Schafkopf which includes a three-hand variant.

Variant D has the same configuration as modern Bavarian Schafkopf, although the latter has Hearts as permanent trumps in the 'normal game', alliances rather than partnerships and various solo contracts. Meanwhile Doppelkopf looks like a merger of G, taking it from 12 to 16 Wenzels, and Wendish Schafkopf, with partnerships decided by the O and O. As early as 1840 there were two Doppelkopf clubs in Chemnitz, perhaps playing a game related to variants G, H and I. The calling of an Ace, probably originated in German Solo, but had been adopted in Bavarian Schafkopf and its sibling Obsern by the 1840s, before von Alvensleben published the first rules for the variant of Wendish Schafkopf in 1853.

In the 1830s it was confirmed as being "a card game common in Saxony". In 1831, Schafskopf was also very much in vogue in several parts of rural Thuringia,

In 1835, Skat inventor, Johann Friedrich Ludwig Hempel (1773-1849) from Altenburg, records a brief entry in Pierer's Universal-Lexikon in which Schafkopf is described as a game played with the German pack, usually by four players in partnership, the partners sitting opposite one another. It was named after the scoring system which involved chalking a sheep's head on the table. The first team to complete the head received the amount agreed by the players. Alternatively each hand was paid immediately after its completion. There were manifold variations which Hempel does not describe, but a common feature was that the game was won by the team with the most card points. He also describes the earliest two-handed variant of Schafkopf.

By 1836 it had reached Mecklenburg where "Schafskopf" was played by the lower classes exclusively with French-suited cards alongside Dreikart, Fünfkart and Solo, the dignitaries playing Whist, Boston, Ombre, Faro and, less often, Solo as well.