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.