Wilhelm Busch (1832-1908)

German card games from the collection of Rex Pitts

Wilhelm Busch was a German caricaturist and humourist who lived from 1832-1908 (during the aftermath of the unsuccessful revolutions of 1848-49). He was immensely famous in his own country and loved by all Germans due to his satirical “picture stories” in which he mocked the “Biedermeier bourgeoisie”. He is credited as the inventor of the comic strip and his cartoons and comic verse are as well known in Germany as Edward Lear’s cartoons and limericks are in England. Most famous of his characters are Max and Moritz, a couple of bumbling nitwits always in trouble. Their adventures continued from very early in Busch’s career to the very end. A later entrant was Fipps the Ape, also very popular. Many card games were produced in Germany using his characters and several are illustrated here. The Germans definitely do have a sense of humour!  See: Wikipedia article →

Above: “Lustiges Wilhelm Busch Quartett” card game published by Franz Schmidt Nuremberg, 1937.

Above: “Fipps der Affe“ (Fipps the Ape) quartet game with cartoons by Wilhelm Busch published by Bielefelder Spielkarten GmbH, c.1960.

Above: “Der Lohn des Fleisses“ (The reward of diligence) card game coupled with “Die Strafe der Faulheit“ (The punishment of sloth) in verse and pictures, with cautionary tone.

Above: “Schwarzer Peter Quartett” card game published by VEB Altenburger Spielkartenfabrik, c.1960.

REFERENCES

Gladwell, Joan Elizabeth: Wilhelm Busch: The Art of Letting Off Steam Through Symbolic Inversion, PhD thesis, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, 2013

Above: Broadside 'Bilderbogen', with twelve scenes showing a married couple whose sleep is interrupted by a mischievous mouse; Munich Bilderbogen No. 278. 1860 is the date of the first edition; this impression (8th edition) is likely to be later. Print made by Wilhelm Busch, printed by Dr E Wolf & Sohn, published by Braun und Schneider (Munich). Hand-coloured woodcuts and letterpress; backed on canvas support. Below each image are one or two lines of rhyming text (and in manuscript in English). © The Trustees of the British Museum • Museum number 1991,0615.123►

Other German Comic Card Games

from the collection of Rex Pitts

Besides the range of children's card games published by B. Dondorf and J.W. Spear & Söhne which tended to be more educational, a number of comic games were produced by other German manufacturers with perhaps a preponderance of “Schwarzer Peter” games, where the main focus of the game is towards the last card, which might be a black cat, chimney sweep or homourous character:

Above: “Das Lustige Familien-Quartett” humourous card game published by Eugen Schmidt K.G., Dresden, 1930s.

Above: Walt Disney “Schwarzer Peter” game published by Vereinigte Altenburger und Stralsunder Spielkarten-Fabriken A.G., Stuttgart.

Above: “Schwarzer Peter” game published by Ensslin & Laiblin, Reutlingen (Stuttgart), c.1890s.

Above: “Humouristic Quartett” game made in Germany.

Above: “Schwarzer Peter” game published by Dr. Herbert Schulze Buch und Kunstverlag Nachf., artwork by Herbert Zeise.

Above: Card game based on Grimms’ fairy tales.

Above: “Schwarzer Peter” published by Vereinigte Altenburger und Stralsunder Spielkarten-Fabriken A.G., Stuttgart.

Above: “Struwwel-Peter Quartett” card game.

See also: Dondorf's Pierre l'Ebouriffé→