Games played with German suited cards The German suits of acorns
, leaves , hearts and bells were established in the early
fifteenth century. There may be some very early packs that had
52 cards, but at a fairly early stage the standard German pack
came to consist of 48 cards. Each suit had a king, an upper jack
(Obermann) with the suit symbol at the top, a lower jack
(Untermann) with the suit symbol at the bottom, a ten (sometimes
shown as a banner), and further numerals from nine down to two.
Presumably this full 48 card pack was used for various games,
but the main one about which we have information is Karnöffel.
When the ace of the French and Italian packs was promoted to be
the highest card in many games, the same thing happened to the
two or deuce (Daus) of the German pack. Later, several games
became popular in which the pack was shortened to 36, 32 or even
fewer cards, by omitting what were now the lowest numerals: 3,
4, 5, sometimes 6, and so on. The deuce, now isolated as the
highest card, has come