German playing cards?

Good idea

For people in the US, Tarobear's Lair has some inexpensive German-suited decks. (I rather like the Swiss Jass decks. The suits are a little different, being acorns, bells, flowers and shields.)

Oh yes, they're lovely, too. I'll order some decks, I think - in Germany, they're really cheap. It will take some time until I get them, but I have wanted to start working with these cards for a long time. They're part of my heritage.

I got a few decks from TaroBear's Lair. I haven't tried reading with them yet, but I thought I'd share some pictures.

I tried for a representative sampling of patterns - one each of the Bavarian, Bohemian, and Salzberg patterns, and two of the William Tell pattern, which is also called The Four Seasons. I was on a few different sites trying to match up the patterns to the decks on TaroBear's Lair, because you can't see very many cards on TB's site.

So this first one is a William Tell-patterned deck by Modiano. It's a 33 card deck and they're plastic and double-ended. The suits are hearts, bells, leaves and acorns. Each suit is 7-10, Unter Knave and Ober Knave, Kings, and the Daus card which has two suit markers but is called an Ace for reasons having to do with History.

The Daus/Aces are the Four Seasons, and the Unter and Ober Knaves are characters from the William Tell story. The Kings ride horses. Most of the pips have a little scene, either people or a landscape, but a few don't.

Oh, there's a "wild card" called a Weli which is the 6 of Bells but also has a heart and acorn on it. I'm not sure how the Weli card is used. The deck is designed for a game called Belot.

My pics aren't super sharp but this gives you an idea what they are like. The drawings are nicely detailed, and the colors are bright and pretty.

If you look for this deck on TaroBear's Lair, it's in the Central European section.

This is the other William Tell-patterned deck I got. It's by Piatnik and is a 36 card deck. It's the same as the other, with the Daus, King, Ober Knave and Unter Knave, but then the pips are 10-6. It still has the 6 of Bells Weli card, but also 6 of Hearts, Leaves, and Acorns. It's called Doppeldeutsche (Double German?) and I don't remember right now what card game it's meant for.

Anyway, these too have little scenes on the pips, but the 6's on the Acorns and Leaves are just repeated from the 7's, which is disappointing. The figures on the Seasons cards are a little different, especially the Acorn one, which features an older woman instead of a man warming his hands by a fire.

This is also in the Central European section on TaroBear's Lair.

I'm trying to retrace my steps for the sites I found info on. This is a partial list of links -

http://a_pollett.tripod.com/cards16.htm
http://www.wopc.co.uk/hungary/seasons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_playing_cards#William_Tell (good old Wikipedia)
https://seaqueen.wordpress.com/2007/08/20/1730-doppeldeutsche-schnapskarten/ (has cartomantic meanings for the 10s, with a link to Scribd for more)

eta: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/481513/history-hungariantell-cards I haven't read through this yet

I'll do the Salzburger and Bohemian patterns tomorrow - they are my favorites!

Wow, this is a treasure chest, thank you so much, Laura!!!

I ordered now five simple decks (they're so cheap I really had to hold on tight!) of different traditions to get a feeling for the differences, and which suits me best.

ASS Doppelkopf

Piatnik Schafkopf

Piatnik Binokel Gaigel

Rupert Höll, Bergmannskarten

Rupert Höll, Harz Karten

I remember my parents playing Doppelkopf, and my ancestors came from the Harz area - all of them miners (I have family papers until the 14th century). So I simply picked cards that reminded me of something. I'll see whether I'll be able to read with any of them!

When I told my mother I want to buy such cards, she shuddered and said she remembers her father using them to play Skat, and that she was afraid of them. They had such spooky faces, she thought. She always preferred the French cards.

I'm very curious how that will work out.

Laura Borealis said:

Those are so pretty! I think I know how I'll waste my morning....

Check this one out. http://www.spielkartenladen.de/de/echte-trumpfkarte-no-148

Looks like a repro of an old, worn deck - like the Destroyed Dondorf but with Skat cards.

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It's not a repro, it's an original - and it looks wonderful!

Doppeldeutsch means: the picture (Bild) is German, and it has two two "heads", i.e., it's always upright. Einfachdeutsch means, the figures are standing so you have upright and reversed pictures.

Ah, what beautiful pictures!!! Thank you! The Seasons cards are wonderful. So is the Piatnik Blitz.

My cards have arrived, and I have read quite a lot about them to understand the structure.

German playing cards were used to play Skat or Schafkopf, and for these games, you need only 32 cards. 7,8,9,10, Unter (Jack), Ober (Queen), King, Deuce (Ace). The Deuce is the highest trump. There are no Aces or cards from 2 to 6.

The generic name for these decks is Skat decks although they are and were used for a multitude of different card games.

I used to play Skat as a child (i.e., was taught it but don't remember how to play it), my Bavarian cousins played Schafkopf but in our area it was not played, and my parents played Doppelkopf with friends. Doppelkopf is popular in our area, Skat is played all over Germany.

The Doppelkopf deck has 48 cards - two of each 9, 10, Unter, Ober, King, Ace. I bought mine because I want to use it as training deck and it has enough extra cards to use for combination cards etc. As born Barbarian, I use tippex to wipe out the lower half of the cards to write on, and I turned the superfluous 9s and 10s into 7s and 8s.

The Binokel/Gaigel has a beautiful "Blatt" but it has only 7s and 10s, no 8s and 9s. I don't know whether there's a tradition of fortune telling with those cards; I guess in each area of Germany, Switzerland or Austria where these decks were in use, people also used them for such purposes ;-)

French playing cards have parallel suits and many books read the cards just the same - Blatt is Spades and that's it. I have quite a collection of nice playing cards with French suits for Romme and Patience, but also for reading cards - at the moment, that's only a plan.

The Lenormand deck has evolved from the French suits (and it has 36, not 32 cards), and although in some book, the meaning of the Skat cards are surprisingly close to the Lenormand meanigns, I have the lingering feeling that these are modern influences. Lenormand knowledge may have influenced the writers when looking at their much simpler Skat cards.

I will study the German cards first.

My favorite deck is the Bergmannskarten set - it has no suit symbols or numbers, only the titles of mining workers. The court reflects their hierarchy. With joy, I saw the name Obersteiger - one of my grandfathers was an Obersteiger.

So this is the deck I'll be starting with.

2 book suggestions

Nemia said:

I know there are people around here who know to read playing cards - something I really want to learn. I'm especially fascinated with German playing cards, with hearts, bellls, acorns and leaves.

My grandmother had a huge collection of playing cards, among them a lot of German decks. When I was a child, I loved to look at them with magnifiying glasses, compare them etc. I must have been eleven or twelve years old then. I don't know where these cards went after my grandmother died, probably my aunts and uncles threw them away. So I have a sentimental attachment to such decks.

Does anyone of you have any tips, favorite decks, good books to learn etc? I'd be really grateful.

And a more general question: does reading playing cards impact your tarot skills? I noticed that when I learn a new language, old languages I used to know get "covered". And I'm afraid that the different methods, strategies, systems will get mixed up somewhere in my mind.

I never really warmed to Lenormand although I own Blue Owl cards and a very nice book by Anne Biwer (purchased some time before the Lenormand boom started). But playing cards - I'd love to try. Especially German ones.

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Leesa Ellis has a book on her website that details the meanings of Hungarian / German cards (bells, hearts, acorns, leaves). I believe it is also offered as an Amazon e-book.
http://www.leesaellis.com/books.html

The Card Reader offers some exceptional youtube videos on the playing cards. His teaching style is easy to understand and he is very knowledgeable. He has also written an introductory ebook which you can find on his website.
http://www.yourcardreading.com/guide-how-to-read-playing-cards/

I'd like to offer some suggestions on your question about playing cards impacting you Tarot skills. Each cartomancy system speaks its own language. In my view, the 'art' of card reading is the same for any system. Using you intuition when selecting the appropriate meanings for the cards (some cards have several meanings) requires practice. Some readings flow and other readings can be a bit more challenging. The important thing to remember is that no matter what deck you are reading use the language of that deck.

Enjoy your cartomancy journey. Jozefa Seaqueen

Thank you very much!