Schafkopf (, lit. 'sheep's head'), 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"Bayerische Kartenspiele: Vom Aussterben bedroht: Retten Sie das Karteln! at www.abendzeitung-muenchen.de. Retrieved 17 August 2018 and "the mother of all trump games."Schafkopf Tarock Karten at viertreff.de. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
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.Foster's Skat Manual, p. 3, R. F. Foster - Averill Press 2008 Some kind of Schafkopf was current in Franconia (northern Bavaria) 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.Bauernstoss at pagat.com. Retrieved 8 August 2021. 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 (Bayerischer Schafkopf-Verein) in 1989. These were revised by the School of Schafkopf (Schafkopfschule) 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 (unreiner 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 nineOxford Dictionary of Card Games, p. 246, David Parlett - Oxford University Press 1996 F.W. Grimme: comments to Schwameldirk (En Fastowendstück). In: Schwänke und Gedichte in sauerländischer Mundart, Paderborn 1861, pp. 135/136. or twelveFreiberger Bier-Comment, Freiberg, 1862, p. 101. points which were marked with a piece of chalk as lines on a board, gradually forming the stylized appearance of a sheep's head (German: Schaf = sheep, Kopf = head).Schafkopf history from BR-online 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 ["sheep's head"], 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."Rodenberg (1862), p. 298.
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 (geklopft) on the lids (Köpfen) of barrels (Upper German: Schaff, cf. Schäffler/Scheffel).H. Burger, E. Fischer, H. Riehl-Heyse, J. Blaumeiser: Bavaria's Prussians are the best Munich 1979.Wolfgang Peschel: Bayerisch Schaffkopfen - Wissenswertes, Humoriges; mit den offiziellen Regeln des Bayerischen Schaffkopf-Vereins. 1992. .W. Medicus: Die Naturgeschichte nach Wort und Spruch des Volkes Nördlingen 1867, p. 83. 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".Deutsches Magazin: ein illustrirtes Familienbuch (1862), Volumes 1-2, p. 298.
Forerunners The indirect precursors of the various games of the Schafkopf family (which includes Doppelkopf and Skat), were the Spanish national game of L'Hombre (which had reached the Holy Roman Empire through the courtly circles of France in the late 17th century), 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 (= Deuce, but often called an Ace), was also usual in German Solo; the determination of the winning team by counting card points (Augen), 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,Spielkarten Historie at nsv.de. Retrieved 15 June 2022 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"G. Hesekiel: Royalisten und Republicaner. Aus der Zeit der französischen Republik. Zweite Abtheilung: Graf Larochejacquelein, Leipzig, 1845, p. 164. when seen against the backdrop of ever more popular card games (such as German Solo or Skat), 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 (especially in Wisconsin and Minnesota, cf. Sheepshead) 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 (Die Dankbare Tochter) 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.Hartmann (1780), p.24. It also appears in a 1782 Saxon schedule of penalties, Drinking and Gaming on Workdays and Sundays (Zechen und Spielen an Werktagen und Sonntagen), 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.Karl Ferdinand Hommel: Rhapsodia quaestionum in foro quotidie obunientum, Vol. 3, Bayreuth, 1782, p. 115.
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 (in Gräfenberg) dates to the year 1849;"Zur Erinnerung" in Der Zuschauer an der Pegnitz (Nürnberg), Vol. 2, No. 1, 2 January 1849, p 12. and while Schafkopf playing in Franconia was already widespread in the 1840s,Oberpfälzisches Zeitblatt (Regensburg), 3rd volume, No. 1 date 1 January 1843, p. 375. in the Bavarian Forest, Tarock (the Bavarian game, not the true Tarock game played in Austria) was more popular.Karl v. Reinhardstöttner: Land und Leute im Bayerischen Walde, 1890, p. 66. 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.Schwarzmann (1876), p. 862. The RCB cites the author as J.B.C–. but several later sources cite L. Schwarzmann of Sulzbach. 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.Jups (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 (Durchmarsch) 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.Karten-Spiel-Tarif (1876), p. 1.