Firstly, Altenburg is famous as the town of card-makers. Playing cards have been manufactured here for over 400 years. In Altenburg castle, there is a museum devoted entirely to playing cards. The museum was first established in 1923 and by the second world war it had over 6,000 packs of historic cards. After the war the museum was closed down, but it later re-opened. The remains of the old museum's exhibits became the nucleus of the the new museum, which now has a unique collection of cards from all over the world.

But Altenburg is particularly famous as the town where the game of Skat was invented. Skat is the national card game of Germany, and is widely considered to be the best game for three players. Altenburg is proud of its connection with the game, and there is a fountain in the town dedicated to Skat. German suited cards. Picture by A.S.S and is reproduced by kind permission of Andy Pollett

Skat is played with the 32-card pack. Each hand starts with bidding to determine which of the three players will be the declarer. There are various possible contracts to play with a particular suit as trumps, to play with jacks as trumps (grand), or to play to get no tricks (null). The player who makes the highest bid plays against the other two. In most of the contracts, the aim is to capture most points in the tricks that you take. The cards which are worth more when you take them in a trick are not always the ones which rank highest in winning the trick in the first place. This feature of the game can take some getting used to for players more familiar with games like Bridge and Whist.

Skat was developed early in the 19th century. According to legend, a coachman who travelled to various parts of Europe brought the game of Schafkopf to Altenburg, and taught it to a group of local Tarot players. They used features from both games, and the game of L'Hombre, to create a new game - and so Skat was invented! The name came from the Italian word scartare, meaning to set aside. German suited cards. Picture by A.S.S and is reproduced by kind permission of Andy Pollett

The game spread first to the university in nearby Leipzig, and then to other parts of Germany. In 1886 there was the first Skat Congress in Altenburg, where a Skat association was formed and standard rules were drawn up.

Immigrants took the game to the USA in the 1870s, and in 1898 a North American Skat League was set up. The popularity of the game later waned in America, but in Germany it went from strength to strength.

Nowadays the game is organised internationally by the International Skat Players Association (ISPA). There are already more than a dozen countries with their own Skat association affiliated to the ISPA.

The ISPA organises world championships and European championships, which happen in alternate years. The world championships in 1998 were held in Namibia, and the champion was Walter Schneider of Germany. In the European championships in France in 1999, the individual champion was Gerd Raschke, also of Germany. The champion national team was Belgium. The next world championships are scheduled for November 2000 in Mallorca. German suited cards. Picture by A.S.S and is reproduced by kind permission of Andy Pollett

In Germany, Skat is organised by the Deutscher Skatverband. This Skatserver site also has information about Skat in German.

Information in English about Skat can be found at the International Skat Home Page.

WinSkat, a shareware Skat program for Windows, which is available in English and German versions, can be downloaded from Cutesoft.

You can read about the history of Skat, and the Altenburg playing-cards museum, in German, at this Altenburg site.

Skat has also been an inspiration for art! The expressionist painter Otto Dix was from Thuringia, and in 1920 he produced a painting called der Skatspieler. This striking image was in the headlines in 1996 when it was due to be sold. A campaign was launched to raise funds to purchase the painting for the national gallery in Berlin. Skat tournaments were among the fundraising events, and the campaign successfully reached its target.