Altbaumer
- Introduction
- Players and Objective
- Cards
- The Deal
- Making Trump
- The Play
- Scoring
- Winning
- Variation: St. Märgen Scoring
- Conclusion
Introduction
Altbaumer, also called Altbomer in the local Baar dialect, is an intriguing and old south German game that is only known today in Röthenbach, a village on the upper reaches of the eponymous river and about 8 miles east of Lake Titisee, a major tourist attraction in the Black Forest. The name Altbaumer means something like “old forester” and this theme is reflected in its terminology and scoring. Very little is known about its origins and distribution, although its anticlockwise play suggests a certain antiquity. Locals play it mainly at home, but also sometimes in a local Gasthaus, and during the 2000s there was even an Altbaumer tournament in the village which drew around five or six tables of players. It was also played in people’s homes in the village of St. Märgen, 16 miles to the northeast of Röthenbach, immediately after the Second World War. This suggests it is a native of the High Black Forest and possibly the western tip of the Baar region. No published record of its rules has been found, so this may well be the first written account of the game.
This page is based on information compiled by games researcher Paul Eaton and Black Forest ranger Achim Laber, who were alerted to the game by Eugen Renner when local card players gathered to learn Dappen at Titisee-Neustadt in summer 2024. Achim Laber and newcomer, Clemens Hofmeier, initially learned Altbaumer on 5 February 2025 at Hause Durst, the home of René Wolf, in Röthenbach. His instructors were Eugen Renner and the sisters Gerda Marx and Uli Zimmerhansel. Another session was held on 14 May 2025 in which Paul Eaton and his wife, Jo, joined the group to clarify the rules further. Paul Eaton gathered more information on 15 May 2025 at Breitnau from Luise Winterhalden, who had played the game in her youth in St. Märgen.
The playing cards depicted above are the Queen and Jack of Clubs from a Jass/Tapp pack, © ASS Altenburger. Pack design: Berlin or North German pattern, originally designed before 1856. Cards depicted by kind permission of ASS Altenburger.
Players and Objective
Altbaumer is a four-hand, plain-trick, partnership game in which the aim is to win 3 of the 5 tricks in each hand. On a rectangular table, partners sit diagonally opposite one another. Deal and play are anticlockwise.
Cards
A 24-card, Berlin pattern pack is used. This may be made either by shortening the local 36-card Jass/Tapp pack, removing the 6s to 8s, or from a standard Skat pack by removing the 7s and 8s, or from a Poker or Rommé pack, removing the 2s to 8s and any Jokers.
The suits are called Kreuz, Pik, Herz and Karo (Clubs, Spades, Hearts and Diamonds).
There are two matadors (permanent top trumps). The Queen of Clubs or 'Big Tree' (Großbaum or Großer Bom), is the highest trump and the Jack of Clubs or 'Little Tree' (Kleinbaum or Kleiner Bom), is the second highest.
Thus the trump suit normally has 8 cards, except in Clubs when there are 6. The trumps rank as follows:
Big Tree (Queen of Clubs)
Little Tree (Jack of Clubs)
Ace
King
Ten
(Queen)
(Jack)
Nine
In the non-trump suits the ranking is: A 10 K (Q) (J) 9.
The Deal
The Nines are shuffled and players draw one each. The players with the two red Nines form one team and those with the two black Nines the other. The player with the Nine of Clubs deals first. The dealer shuffles the pack, using an overhand shuffle, and the player to dealer's left cuts. If a Tree is cut, the cutter may take it; if the next card is the other Tree, the cutter may take that too. Any cards so taken must be placed face up on the table for all to see.
The dealer then deals five cards each, in packets of three and then two, and places the last four face down on the table as a stock. If the cutter has already taken one or both Trees, the dealer gives them correspondingly fewer in the first packet.
The turn to deal passes to the right after each hand.
Making Trump
Forehand (the player to dealer's right) and forehand's partner are the trump makers; the other team are the defenders. To make trump the dealer first turns the top card of the stock and places it face up alongside the rest. Forehand may accept the suit of this turned up card as trump by taking it and discarding a card face down to the stock in its place. Alternatively forehand may refuse it by saying “No” in which case another card is turned up and, if necessary, another and another, until a different suit is revealed, which automatically becomes trumps. Forehand then takes this new trump indicator card and discards one card to the stock in its place. If all four cards turned are of one suit, that suit fixes trumps, forehand takes all four of these trumps and discards any four cards face down in their place. If a Tree is turned up, it represents the suit of Clubs for the purpose of determining trumps.
If at this stage either player of the trump maker's team believes they have a strong enough hand to take the majority of tricks playing alone, they announce this and the other member of the team puts their cards face down and does not take part in the play. The advantage of this is that if the lone player takes all five tricks, their team wins the entire round.
The Play
Forehand leads to the first trick. Players must follow suit if able. A player who has no card of the suit that was led must play a trump. A player who has no cards of the suit led and no trumps may play any card. There is no obligation to head the trick.
For the purpose of following suit, the two Trees (Queen and Jack of Clubs) are treated as members of the trump suit, except in the following special case. If a suit other than Clubs is trump and an ordinary Club (Ace, King, 10 or 9) is led, the other players may play any Club, including the option to play a Tree. When an ordinary Club is led, a player who has no ordinary Clubs must trump with a Tree if they have one. A player with no Clubs and no Trees must play a card of the trump suit if possible. Only when holding no Clubs, no Trees and no other trumps are they allowed to play a card of a different non-trump suit.
This special case only applies when an ordinary Club is led. When a Tree is led the other players must play trumps if they have them. Only a player with no Trees and no cards of the trump suit can play a non-trump, and in this case they can play a card of any non-trump suit.
The highest trump wins the trick, or the highest card of the led suit if no trumps were played. For this purpose the Trees count as the top trumps, even in the special case where a non-trump Club was led. The trick winner leads to the next trick.
Examples with Hearts trump. Players A and C are partners against B and D
- Player A leads the
9, player B follows suit with the A. Player A's partner C has the 10 and Jack of Clubs and chooses to trump with the J. Player D has no Clubs and just one trump, the 
A, which must be played, even though D would have preferred to keep it for later and play a non-trump. The J (Little Tree) wins the trick since it is a higher trump than the A. - Player A leads the Big Tree (Q). Player B has the J, the 10 and the 9. East must play either the J or the 9 (better). B is not allowed to play the 10 to this trick because it is not a trump.
The first team that takes three tricks wins the hand; a team winning all five wins double. Even if a hand is won 3-1, it is usual to play the last trick out. This may be a hangover from the time when it was a rule in order to prevent cheating by spotting a revoke, as in Euchre.
Scoring
The principle is as follows. A team that takes 3 or 4 tricks scores +1 point. A team that takes all 5 tricks scores +2 points. If the trump makers take 3 or more tricks their opponents score nothing. If the trump makers take fewer than 3 tricks they score -1 point (while their opponents score +1 or +2). Both teams begin with scores of zero. The first team that reaches a cumulative score of 5 or more points over as many deals as that takes wins the round. At the end of the round both teams' point scores are rest to zero. If a player of the trump maker's team plays alone and wins all five tricks that team immediately wins the current round and the point scores are reset to zero.
The authentic way to score is using a slate or score sheet on which a stylised tree is drawn. The 'trunk' is represented by an ellipse from which two horizontal main branches extend. The longer main branch to the left of the trunk has 5 pairs of vertical side-branches above and below. These side branches are called Bengel, an old Black Forest technical term. The Bengel on the left-hand branch represent points. The main branch to the right only has 2 pairs of Bengel, representing rounds.
If the trump makers take 3 or 4 tricks they erase a Bengel from their side of the left-hand branch; if they take 5 tricks, they erase 2 Bengel. If they lose, they add a curly line in the shape of a 6 or 9, called a bloke (Mann or Mensch), and their opponents, the defenders, erase one Bengel; or two Bengel if they won all five tricks. Curly lines represent negative points and teams that have any of these must erase them first instead of Bengel. Only when they have removed all their Menschen can they use their points to erase their Bengel.
The first team that erases all five of their Bengel on the left branch of the tree wins the round (Runde). They erase one Bengel from their side of the right branch and if neither team has won two rounds yet, the left branch of the tree is restored to its original condition with 5 pairs of Bengel and no Menschen.
If a member of forehand's team plays alone the scoring is as above except that if the lone player wins all five tricks, forehand's team wins the round, erases one Bengel from their side of the right-hand branch, and reinstates the left-hand branch for the new round.
Winning
The first team to win two rounds and thus erase 2 Bengel on the right-hand branch wins the game. Their opponents buy them a schnapps or other agreed drink. If each team wins a round, there is a shorter third round consisting of one hand only; whoever wins three tricks in this hand erases their second Bengel from the right-hand side of the tree and wins the game.
Variation: St. Märgen Scoring
In St. Märgen the terminology and scoring diagram were slightly different. If you lost as trump makers you were mutsch. This sounds like a dialect version of matsch, a common Bavarian and Austrian expression meaning to lose double or lose badly, the equivalent of Schneider in Skat and Schafkopf. It is also likely that Mensch is a corruption of mutsch. The scoring system in St. Märgen consisted of five horizontal lines chalked on a slate bisected by a long vertical line, again looking something like a tree trunk with branches. Each team had one side of the trunk and their names were chalked at the top. The branches were erased when points were scored. If the trump makers lost (mutsch), they were given a circular blob below the ladder on their side. A circular blob was added on the frame for the team that lost a round. The finer detail of the St. Märgen scoring is unknown.
Conclusion
Altbaumer is a fascinating local game which has a number of unique features. First it is the only known game in which the matadors are a Queen and a Jack in a fixed suit. It is also a rare example of a game in which cards have dual citizenship – being members of the trump suit as well as for some purposes of their natural suit.
The overall format bears a resemblance to Euchre with its 24-card pack, four players in partnership, its 5-card plain trick format, two special top trumps and a card turned up to offered a trump suit, albeit only to one player, not all four. This is not totally surprising as Euchre is thought to have evolved from Jucker, a Palatinate game that dates at least to the late 18th century and which has other descendants in southwest Germany.
Like Euchre, Altbaumer is relatively easy to pick up; it’s fast-paced and fun with a good balance of luck and skill, a good pastime to relax with while being competitive enough to be a candidate for small local competitions.