The history of the game of Skat or Scat began in the early 19th century in Thuringia. The game spread rapidly within German-speaking Europe and also in the US and is now one of the most popular card games in Germany as well as being considered Germany's national card game.
History
Beginnings The early history of the game of Skat has been well researched, although some theories about its origins cannot be proven or have since been discredited. In particular, the once popular anecdote that Friedrich Ferdinand Hempel, a well known Altenburg lawyer, simply invented Skat himself one evening having become bored with a game of Solo has since been discredited by Oskar Stein (1887), although subsequent research has shown that Hempel (along with his namesake J.F.L. Hempel) had a hand in its development.Stein (1887).
What is certain is that the game was developed between 1810 and 1813 in the Thuringian town of Altenburg from older card games. The concept of bidding appears to be derived from L'Hombre through its simpler German version, Solo; the idea of setting aside two cards (the skat) was taken from the Tarot game of Grosstarock. Doppelkopf, however, is not one of Skat's precursors but a 19th century development of the double-pack games in German Schafkopf."Ereignis" at Deutsche Skatverband. Retrieved 13 Sep 2018
The first Skat players and 'inventors' of the game were Altenburg dignitaries and members of a local Tarock club: grammar school teacher (Gymnasialprofessor) Johann Friedrich Ludwig Hempel (1773-1849), medical health officer (Medizinalrat) Dr. Hans Carl Leopold Schuderoff, court advocate and notary Friedrich Ferdinand Hempel (1778-1836), Councillor Carl Christian Adam Neefe (1774-1821) and Chancellor Hans Carl Leopold von der Gabelentz (1778–1831). Another participant in the rounds was well-known publisher, Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus. The game was first known as Ore Mountain Schafkopf (Erzgebirgischer Schafkopf).
Von der Gabelentz's scores in these games have survived and can be seen in the Thuringian State Archive in Altenburg. In a notebook he listed his gaming losses and winnings in detail from 1798 to 1829, so that, even today, his gaming results are clear. On 4 September 1813 the term Scat appeared for the first time in this account.1813 - Erste urkundliche Erwähnung at skat-spielen.de. Retrieved 2 August 2023. A further verifiable written record of the new game can be found in an article about Osterland games in edition no. 30 of the weekly Osterländische Blätter published in Altenburg on 25 July 1818 under the heading "Das Skadspiel".1818 - Erwähnung in den Osterländischen Blättern at skat-spielen.de. Retrieved 2 August 2023. In the years that followed the game spread more and more, especially among the students of Thuringian and Saxon universities and was soon popular in large parts of German-speaking Europe.
The earliest recorded rules for "Scat" were written down by one of its inventors, "Hp" (J.F.L. Hempel), for Pierer and von Binzer's 1833 Encyclopädisches Wörterbuch, by when it was already popular in the Kingdom of Saxony, especially in the Duchy of Altenburg and the surrounding area. These describe a game for 3 players with German-suited cards who received 10 each in packets of 3, 2, 3 and 2, the two remaining cards being dealt to the table as a talon known as the Scat. There were just two contracts – Frage and Solo – and forehand opened the bidding or passed. A Frage bidder could be overcalled by a Solo and either could be overcalled by the same contract in a higher-ranking suit, the suits ranking in the same order as in the modern game. The declarer needed 61 card points to win and there were bonuses for scoring 90 (Schneider), taking all tricks (Schwarz) and, optionally, for holding or lacking matadors in unbroken sequence from the top. The four Unters were permanent trumps ranking above the trump suit.Pierer & von Binzer (1833), p. 371.
The first treatise on the rules of Skat, Das Scatspiel: Nebst zwei Liedern, was published in 1848, also by J. F. L. Hempel, shortly before his death.R. F. Foster, Foster's Skat Manual, pp. 7, 8, 162, Averill Press (2008), Nevertheless, more and more variations and regional peculiarities of the game developed; the rules thus differed from one region to another until the first attempt to set them in order was made by a congress of Skat players on 7 August 1886 in Altenburg. These were the first official rules finally published in a book form in 1888 by Theodor Thomas of Leipzig. The current rules, followed by both the International Skat Players Association, German Skat Federation and British Skat Association, date from Jan. 1, 1999.Encyclopædia Britannica Skat
Because of the poor economic conditions and lack of political freedom in many German states, Germany was a classic emigration region in the 19th century and many emigrants took the game with them to their new homeland.
First Skat congresses and foundation of German Skat Association
The first 70 years were a success story. The game spread and won more and more supporters from all social classes, but suffered from a confusion of local and regional rules. There was a danger that Skat would disintegrate into many new games.
In the 1870s important new movements began, which led to the rules being unified and later simplified. The founding of the Empire accelerated this process in many ways. During the boom of the Gründerzeit period, the game was able to spread throughout Germany unhindered by the old borders, but this also encouraged uncontrolled growth. In the rapidly expanding towns and the huge factories many people from different parts of the German Empire met and came into social contact. In addition, supra-regional player associations could be formed in the new unitary state, which ultimately led to the foundation of the German Skat Association.
In 1884, Freiherr von Hirschfeld published an Illustriertes Scatbuch (Illustrated Scat Book). One year later followed the set of rules, Illustriertes Lehrbuch des Scatspiels ("Illustrated Textbook of the Scat Game") by county court councillor, Karl Buhle. In 1886, on the occasion of an industrial fair in Altenburg, a big Skat tournament was held. The event led to the first Skat Congress. About a thousand participants decided the General German Rules of Skat (Allgemeine Deutsche Skatordnung), which was based on the aforementioned book by Buhle. At this time there were two fundamentally different playing methods. One variant was called Altenburg Suit Bidding (Altenburger Farbenreizen) and the other Leipzig Point Bidding (Leipziger Zahlenreizen). The participants of the first Skat Congress could not agree a compromise between the two varieties, which is why no association was founded. The second Skat Congress also failed due to this issue.
In 1887, the Skat Congress tried unsuccessfully to mandate German-suited cards for the game. But as Stein pointed out, there were vast areas of Germany that had largely gone over to French-suited cards.
On 12 March 1899, in Halle (Saale) at the Third Skat Congress, the German Skat Association was founded. Those present could still not agree on a final set of rules. Although suit bidding was declared an official form of the game, point bidding was still allowed. The Congress chose Altenburg as the headquarters of the new association.
A year earlier a comparable association had been founded in the United States: the North American Skat League. Skat had been played in the USA since at least 1876.
Up to the outbreak of the First World War, seven further Skat congresses followed, at which further rules, such as Null contracts, were defined. However, two points of contention could not be resolved: the method of bidding remained an acute issue which even a prize awarded in 1907 could not change. The second problem was that there was no agreement on a uniform Skat pack.
Introduction of modern standard Skat During the First World War, point bidding spread among the German soldiers. More and more variants developed. In the trenches men of different regional and social backgrounds met one another. If they wanted to play together, they had to find compromises between their domestic rules, which again led to new variations. In view of the situation that one would perhaps no longer be able to experience the settlement of the next round, the game increasingly took on the features of a game of chance with ever higher stakes.
Conservative skat players, who clung to the suit bidding, pejoratively referred to the point bidding game of the simple soldiers as Trench Skat.
Nevertheless, the codification of the basic rules for point bidding is thanks to a declared follower of the classic Altenburg suit bidding system. In 1924, the author of numerous Skat books and bookkeeper of the German Skat Association, Artur Schubert, published fixed rules for Gucki-Skat based on point bidding. In 1922, Schubert still rejected point bidding because the distribution of cards and the position of Jacks or Unters can already be guessed while bidding. He described the rules of the unpopular game variant in order to prevent further diversification.
In 1927 and 1928, after a break of 18 years, two Skat congresses were held in Altenburg. Apart from the details, the rule changes decided upon are the basis of today's game. At the 11th Skat Congress, point bidding was agreed as the official and only playing method, settling a 40-year-old dispute. Another important decision was the establishment of a committee for disputes, from which the German Skat Court emerged. At the 12th Skat Congress the following year, the New German Skat Rules were passed. After the 12th Skat Congress, the basic rules of the game were only changed in detailed questions such as certain base values and scoring.
Not only did the First World War change the bidding system, but it also helped to establish Skat as Germany's pre-eminent card game. As Grünberg noted in north Germany in 1938 "before the war we mostly played Solo. Now everyone plays Skat. Only in the pub, when there is a lot of conversation is a social game of cards played, and that game is called 'Knüffelen'".Grünberg (1938), pp. 27/28.
Recent history At the following two congresses, the values of the Null and normal Grand contracts, which are still valid today, were determined. It was also decided that Hand games would not be penalised twice and that the basic value of the Grand Ouvert would be 36. Another innovation was the regulation introduced in 1936 at the suggestion of Otto Seeger that every game won would be rewarded with a bonus of 50 points.
At the first Skat Congress after the Second World War, Altenburg-based President, Erich Fuchs, was confirmed in office. When he left East Germany in 1953, Bielefeld became the central seat of the German Skat Association. The following congresses brought further rule refinements like e.g. the expanded Seeger and Fabian scoring system.
Since there was also a desire in East Germany for a central authority to settle disputes, the Skataktiv was formed in Altenburg in 1963 to replace the Skat Court. The Altenburgers then adopted the western rule changes, so that despite the division of Germany there was a common rule basis in East and West.
In the early 1970s, the International Skat Players Association (ISPA) was founded, which interpreted some rules differently than the German Skat Association. The two competing associations could not reach a consensus. The conflict escalated when the German Skat Association banned its members from double membership in both associations in 1978. Since then, ISPA has mainly been responsible for the organisation of the annually alternating World and European Skat Championships, but its subdivision ISPA Germany and the DSkV organise their own German individual and team championships and leagues.