History of Skat in accordance with the resolutions of the 28th Skat Congress. Between 1886 and 2006 there were 29 Skat Congresses. The German Skat Association was founded at the third Skat Congress. Important congresses are marked in bold: In the first game variants, the dealer always received the two surplus cards and became a soloist. The trumps comprised the Unters (Jacks) and the trump suit as in the modern Suit contract. However, the declarer was not free to choose trumps. The trump suit, as in Wendish Schafkopf and most contracts of modern Doppelkopf, was permanently Bells (Diamonds). The soloist's only privilege was
History of Skat Altenburg suit bidding ("Altenburger Farbenreizen") and the point bidding system used today was that the suit bidding offered only the basic values of the games. Except in special cases, a player could not be overbid by an unfavourable Unter/Jack in the Skat, since the position of the Unters was not taken into account when bidding. "Matadors" ("Spitzen") were not taken into account until after the game. In addition, the game types differed from today's: Little is known about the early history and origins of point bidding. The first Skat Congress failed in its attempt to found an all-German Skat Association