Schafkopf
Schafkopf, also called Bavarian Schafkopf, is a popular German trick-taking card game of the ace–ten family for four players that evolved, towards the end of the 19th century, from German Schafkopf. It is still very popular in Bavaria, where it is their national card game played by around two million people, but it also played elsewhere in Germany and in Austria. It is an official cultural asset and important part of the Old Bavarian and Franconian way of life. Schafkopf is a mentally demanding pastime that is considered "the supreme discipline of Bavarian card games" and "the mother of all trump games."
Its closest relatives are Doppelkopf and Skat. These three and the North American game of Sheepshead descend from an earlier game, also called Schafkopf, with influences from Solo which, in turn, is the German version of Quadrille. The earliest written reference to the earlier form of Schafkopf – now known as German Schafkopf – dates to 1780, although it only came to notice through the polite society of Altenburg in 1811. Some kind of Schafkopf was current in Franconia in the first half of the 19th century, but the distinct Bavarian form of the game is only positively recorded from 1879, since when it has become the dominant form, whereas German Schafkopf is only played in a number of local variants, for example, in the Palatinate as Alte Schoofkopp or Bauernstoss. Bierkopf and Mucken are simple variants which make a useful introduction to the more complex Schafkopf.
The first official rules were established by the Bavarian Schafkopf Club in 1989. These were revised by the School of Schafkopf and form guidelines for the detail of the game and the conduct of the players. However, unlike Skat, Schafkopf is not really seen as a sport, but purely as a leisure activity. As a result, a large number of traditional rules and variants are used in private games, which can vary considerably from region to region. These common forms of the game are referred to as 'impure' Schafkopf in contrast with 'pure' or standard Schafkopf which is played in tournaments. The name is sometimes spelt Schaffkopf, Schafkopfen or, historically, Schaafkopf, and in north Germany in the Low German dialect: Schaapskopp or Kopp. To play Schafkopf is Schafkopfen and players may be called Schafkopfer.
History
Etymology
There are various theories about the origin of the name Schafkopf, most of which come from traditional folklore. One suggestion is that Schafkopf acquired its name at a time when it was played for up to nine or twelve points which were marked with a piece of chalk as lines on a board, gradually forming the stylized appearance of a sheep's head. However, evidence of such notation is not found in the Bavarian context where it was invariably played for money.Until the late 1960s, the alternative spelling Schaffkopf was not uncommon in Bavaria as an alternative spelling for Schafkopf; the ensuing discussion about the supposedly only correct form and its origin was the subject of extensive debate at that time - among other things in the columns of the Bavarian press - before the common variant Schafkopf became widely accepted from about 1970. However, it was not a new argument. In 1862, the family monthly, Deutsches Magazin, claimed that Schaffkopf "did not bear the unaesthetic name Schafkopf , which it is frequently called today as if to imply that playing it only required the level of mental ability which wise nature bestows on a dumb animal in our pastures; on the contrary it is the game that "creates intelligence" by giving all those who have had little education the opportunity to learn about combination theory and probability."
The issue was largely forgotten when author Wolfgang Peschel argued in the early 1990s for the double 'f' spelling based on the popular traditional view that, in earlier times, the game was supposed to have been played on the lids of barrels. To this day, such casks are used as tables at beer stands and beer halls. Although this hypothesis is unanimously rejected by experts and there is no evidence for it in older sources, it is widespread on the Internet.
Another theory, which dates to the mid-19th century, is that it comes from "Schaffen" and "Kopf", "to work one's brain".
Forerunners
The indirect precursors of the various games of the Schafkopf family, were the Spanish national game of L'Hombre, its four-hand variant, Quadrille, and its simplified German derivative, German Solo. The distinction between variable and permanent trump cards as well as the selection of a contract by announcing and bidding, probably originate from these games. However, it is likely that the distinctive Bavarian game was derived from German Schafkopf, itself a game that originated in Leipzig, Saxony and spread to Franconia in northern Bavaria through what is now Thuringia.The special feature of Bavarian Schafkopf, the selection of a playing partner by 'calling' a Sow, was also usual in German Solo; the determination of the winning team by counting card points, instead of tricks, however, has another origin, perhaps in Bavarian Tarock or related games.
A possible ancestor of Schafkopf is the game of Scharwenzel, first recorded in Leipzig in 1715, but this is known in two forms. In northern Germany, Scharwenzel is a plain-trick game resembling German Solo but with the 4 Unters as permanent trumps below the, trump 7 and. In Bavaria there was a different game that was related to Färbeln and Grobhäusern in which the 4 Unters and possibly 4 Nines were wild.
Emergence and development
The origin and development of the game of Schafkopf - in comparison with Skat - are rather poorly documented. This may be due, on the one hand, to its relatively low social reputation - in the first half of the 19th century Schafkopf was regarded as a comparatively unfashionable and simple "farmer's game" when seen against the backdrop of ever more popular card games, especially at the universities - and, on the other hand, to changes in concept: originally the name referred to its forerunner, located more or less in the Saxon-Thuringian area and now called German Schafkopf to distinguish it. In this older game, which had several variants, the declarer's team was generally determined by a combination of the two highest trump cards, in a not dissimilar manner to the way the Queens of Clubs are used in Doppelkopf today, for example. The variants played in the Palatinate and in the USA should be understood as further developments of this German Schafkopf. The assumption often heard in Bavaria that Skat and Doppelkopf developed from the Bavarian Schafkopf is unlikely; a development of all three games from German Schafkopf is more likely.The game of Schafkopf is first recorded in the 1780s in the literature. In Hartmann's comedy, The Thankful Daughter published in 1780, Platz tells his brother that "I thought we'd play a Schaafkopf" and they go to look for a pack of cards.
It also appears in a 1782 Saxon schedule of penalties, Drinking and Gaming on Workdays and Sundays, typically with the remark that, unlike Hazard for example, it was not to be considered a game of chance in the legal sense and was thus permitted.
The specifically Bavarian variant of the game originated with the introduction of the Rufer or 'Call Ace' contract in the first half of the 19th century - apparently in Franconia. The first clear mention of a game of Schafkopf played according to Bavarian rules dates to the year 1849; and while Schafkopf playing in Franconia was already widespread in the 1840s, in the Bavarian Forest, Tarock was more popular. The question about the origin of the Bavarian Schafkopf cannot be answered conclusively, but available sources suggest a migration from north to south.
The earliest clear description of the game appears in a poem, Das edle Schafkopf-Spiel in the Regensburger Conversations-Blatt in 1876 which not only lists all 14 trumps, but also the contracts of Rufer and Solo as well as features such as the called Ace and losing Schneider. However, the
oldest actual rule set for Bavarian Schafkopf is found in Der gewandte Kartenspieler: 2. Der Schaffkopf: ein geistreiches Kartenspiel printed in Würzburg in 1884. This was followed a decade later by the Schafkopf-Büchlein - Detailliche Anleitung zum Lernen und Verbessern des Schafkopfspiel mit deutschen Karten, published in Amberg in 1895, in which the author explicitly explains the differences from Schafkopf variants played in northern Germany, i.e. Skat and Doppelkopf. The 1876 poem is reprinted although the author clearly did not know its origin.
Schafkopf was a penny ante game, typically played for low stakes. An 1876 table of "card game tariffs" gives 3 levels of payment. In the cheapest, a single game was 3 pfennigs, winning Schneider was worth 5 pfennigs and a march earned 7 pfennigs. These rates were paid by each loser to a different winner. The tariff for matadors was 3 pfennigs for 3 matadors, 5 pfennigs for 4, 7 pfennigs for 5 and so on. At the second level the rates were 5/8/10 and at the third level 10/15/20. The tariff for a Solo is not mentioned but was usually double and paid by each loser to the winner or vice versa.
Schafkopf competitions were frequently reported in the newspapers along with unusual feats. In 1880, the Lichtenfelser Tagblatt reported that a Schafkopf player in Staffelstein had played and won a Heart Solo with no trumps. He had 2 Aces twice guarded and an Ace guarded singly, but no Tens; he led to the first trick and made 65 points to the astonishment of the other players with 14 trumps between them. In Ebermannstadt in 1881 at a private shooting club party, a gentlemen, Johann Weigel, played and won a Schafkopf without any of the 8 "matadors", which the defenders had to pay on scoring only 59, resulting in long faces and complaining. In Pasing in 1888, a similar feat was reported: in a game of "the noble Schaffkopf" a player had won a Solo without possessing a single matador. A few days later in Freyung, a player was dealt all eight matadors, a feat now known as a Sie. In 1929, it was reported that, in Türkenfeld a player won a Bell Solo by 4 points with the Ace and Nine of Leaves, but not a single Unter. And in 1931, master signwriter M. Schleicher "had the good fortune to be able to play a Solo-Tout with the 8 highest cards "; clearly it was not called a "Sie" at that time, nor was it won without play.
In the early rule sets, there were only two contracts: a Frage in which the declarer called for a non-trump Ace and its holder became the declarer's partner and Hearts were always trumps; and a Solo in which the declarer entrumped any suit and played alone against three defenders. During the 20th century, however, other contracts began to emerge. Ramsch, in which the player with the most points loses, appears in 1933 and is joined by Bettel and Schieber-Solo in 1956. In 1974, Wenz, now standard, was still being described as a variation.
The rules of the game were officially established by the Bavarian Schafkopf Club at the 1st Bavarian Schafkopf Congress on 17 December 1989 in Munich's Hofbräuhaus These were updated by the School of Schafkopf in 2007 which has published a revised version on its website. The School of Schafkopf has established itself as an authority on questions of rule interpretation.