01-024 Industrie und Glück

01-024
Industrie und Glück

Let us continue our journey on tarot deck. As mentioned in my earlier post, tarot was not invented for cartomancy. Tarot is a card game deck, printed for playing games with friends. Only until the late 18^th century, people started using tarot for divination purpose.

I have already introduced the Tarot Nouveau, a tarot deck in French suit that looks more or less like an ordinary deck of playing cards, but with a set of trumps. The trumps dropped the common Tarot of Marseilles pattern to represent urban and rural life in the mid-19^th century of France. Today, I will show you another tarot deck called Industrie und Glück.

Industrie und Glück

The name is in Early Modern German. It literally means “Diligence and Fortune". In another words, “work hard and you will earn money”. So, Industrie und Glück is nothing about industry or luck.

Like Tarot Nouveau, Industrie und Glück is a French suit tarot deck used for gaming, mainly for playing the Central European tarock games, such as Königrufen or Zwanzigerrufen. The deck is originated from Vienna and is still popular in Central Europe.

Industrie und Glück consists of 4 suits and 22 trump cards. Same as other tarot decks, there are four face cards in each suit; the Jack, Cavalier, Queen, and King. However, the 5s through 10s in red suits and the 1s through 6s in the black suits are removed, making the whole deck consists of only 54 cards. The removal of cards is simply because those cards are not necessary for playing those Central European tarock games. Also, the pip cards and face cards lack corner indices.

The face cards of Industrie und Glück,
all lacking corner indices

For the trump set, unlike Tarot Nouveau which added modern themes, all Industrie und Glück trumps illustrate genre scenes of rural life with no themes. All trumps except the unnumbered "Excuse" use Roman numerals unlike the Tarot Nouveau decks.

The trump set of Industrie und Glück and also the ace of heart.
Since there is no ace of spade in Central European tarot,
heart is the first suit of the deck.

The pip cards, lacking corner indices

Many versions of the deck were once made, but only two have survived as standard packs. The first is called “Type B”, which is popular in Hungary, Croatia, and Vojvodina and Trieste in northern Italy. The other surviving pattern is called “Type C” which can be found in Austria, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Romania. The deck I got from Etsy was printed by Modiano for Trieste of northern Italy. So, it is in pattern “Type B”.

How to tell the upright direction of the trumps?

As the trumps illustrate genre scenes, it is rather difficult to tell which side is up and which side is down. But thanks to internet, I found a page which tells me how to distinguish.

Is Industrie und Glück worth buying?

Technically, you can play all tarot games with a deck of Tarot Nouveau. Industrie und Glück deck has less cards. Games that require all 78 cards cannot be played with this deck.

But if you want to play tarock in a more “traditional” way, you would like to play with an Industrie und Glück deck. The cards are beautifully printed and not expensive at all. The patterns are very traditional. Owning a pack of Industrie und Glück is like having a piece of Central European history at home. I recommend that.

General Information

Player	2 to 5
Playing Time	30 mins
Age	?
Year Released	1425
Designer	(Public Domain)
Publisher	Modiano
Family	Hand Management, Trick-taking
Score	7.3 (Board Game Geek)

Specifications

Card size	63mm x 109mm
Deck size	54 cards
# of suits	5 – Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, Spades & Trumps
Details	The deck is in traditional French suit. Pip cards are valued from 1 to 10, but the 5s through 10s in red suits and the 1s through 6s in the black suits are removed. The 4 face cards are V, C, D & R. Trump consists of 21 cards, depicting illustrate genre scenes of rural Central European life in the mid-19th century with no themes. And 1 Fool card. There are no Jokers.

Game Play

 

Where to buy?

Etsy.

I got my copy from Etsy. The seller is Shop4Top from Lithuania. The shop provides free shipment through standard airmail, slow but free.

Go back to the Lobby ...