[a] 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".

[2] The card game of Schafkopf dates to the 18th century or earlier and is the oldest member of its eponymous family.

[4] 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.

[6][7] 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.

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.

Except where indicated, they are played by teams of two in fixed partnerships:[10][11] Von Alvensleben (1853) largely reprints Hammer, but adds a tenth, quite different, version called Wendish Schafkopf which includes a three-hand variant.

[10] 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.

[13] In 1831, Schafskopf was also very much in vogue in several parts of rural Thuringia,[14] 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.

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.

[16] In 1853 Von Alvensleben reproduces Hammer's rules and describes Schaafkopf as being very common especially among the lower classes perhaps due to its ordinary name ("sheep's head").

"[19] An 1888 Mansfeld dialect dictionary lists Schôfkopp as a four-hand card game in which Bells are trumps and the four Obers and Unters are matadors.

However his research has uncovered two descendants of the game lingering on in the Palatinate region of western Germany.

[21] The Palatinate is also home to Bauerchen or Bauersches, a four-player, partnership game in which the four Jacks are top trumps in the usual Skat/Schafkopf order.

The following rules appear to be based on Grupp (1994) and resemble those of the original Schafkopf game, i.e. von Alvensleben's Type A above.