Trischaken (German card game)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A high hand in Trischaken - three Aces (1832 Schwerterkarte pack)

Trischaken is an historical Austrian and German gambling card game for three to five players and related to French Brelan.[1]

History[]

Trischaken is mentioned as a card game as early as 1706 in a poem [2] and listed as a banned gambling game in a 1734 law book of Anhalt-Bernburg.[3] An indication of its distribution is given by its inclusion in a 1771 Bremen-Lower Saxon dictionary[4] and its description as "popular" in Bavaria from at least the late 18th[5] to mid-19th century.[6] The word was also spelt dreschaken, meaning "to beat, thrash, cudgel",[6] and may have been derived from dreschen, to thresh, recalling the game of Karnöffel whose name also means "to thrash".[7] In 1871 it was described as a game of chance, popular with peasants "in the provinces" and played with the "large old German cards", which presumably meant 36- or even 48-card, German-suited packs.[8]

Description[]

The Brothers Grimm give a brief description of drischaken as a game for three to five players in which each receives 3 cards and the winner is the one who has the most cards of various possible combinations. They give various alternative spellings as drischäken, drischeken, dreschakn, trischaken and trischakeln.[9]

A detailed description in German of the rules of Brelan (aka Trischaken) is given in Pierer's Universal Lexikon, Volume 3 in 1868.[10]

Other uses[]

Schmidt suggests an actual link with Karnöffel as well as a game called Treschack, played with 3 Kings (It.: tre sciacchi), neither of which resemble Brelan.[1]

In modern times, Trischaken has become a null contract in the popular European Tarot card game of Königrufen.

References[]

  1. ^ a b Schmidt (1800), p. 263.
  2. ^ Beermann (1706)
  3. ^ _ (1734), p. 519.
  4. ^ p. 106.
  5. ^ Cella (1786), p. 161.
  6. ^ a b Weber (1855), p. 332.
  7. ^ _ (1855), p. 16.
  8. ^ Kaiser (1871), p. 102.
  9. ^ Grimm and Grimm (1860), p. 1420.
  10. ^ Pierer (1868), p. 265.

Literature[]

  • _ (1855). Sitzungsberichte by the Vienna Academy of Sciences (Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien Philosophisch-Historische Klasse). Vienna: Imperial and Royal Printers.
  • Beermann, Siegmund (1706). Einige historische Nachrichten und Anmerckungen von der Graffschafft Pyrmont. Frankfurt and Leipzig: Hauenstein.
  • Cella, Johann Jakob (1786). Johann Jakob Cella's, J. V. D. und Hochfürstl. Anspach. Justizrath und Kastner zu Ferrieden freymüthige Aufsätze. Vol. 3. Anspach [Ansbach]: Benedict Friedrich Haueisen.
  • Grimm Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (1860). Deutsches Wörterbuch, 6th edn., vol. 2.
  • Kaiser, Friedrich (1871). Ein Pfaffenleben (Abraham a Sancta Clara): historischer Volksroman. Vol. 1. Vienna: Waldheim.
  • Pierer, H.A. (1868). Universal-Lexikon der Gegenwart und Vergangenheit oder neuestes encyclopädisches Wörterbuch der Wissenschaften, Künste und Gewerbe, 3rd volume, 5th fully improved edn. Altenberg (Bodmerci-Chimpanzee). Altenburg: Pierer.
  • Schmidt, Karl Christian Ludwig Schmidt (1800). Westerwäldisches Idiotikon, oder Sammlung der auf dem Westerwalde. Hadermar and Herborn: Gelehrte Buchhandlung.
  • Weber, Karl Julius (1855). Deutschland, oder Briefe eines in Deutschland reisenden Deutscher, Vols. 1-2. p. 332.
Retrieved from ""