Neunkart ("Nine Cards") or Fett und Mager ("Fat and Lean") was a traditional North German card game played with 36 French-suited cards.

History and description

The game is mentioned as early as 1800 by

Johann Friedrich Schütze Johann Friedrich Schütze, pseudonym: ''Jäger'', was a German author. Life Schütze was born on 1 April 1758 in Altona near Hamburg in north Germany. He was the son of Gottfried Schütze. He attended the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums, the ...

as Neegenkaart and Fett un Mager in his

Holstein Holstein (; nds, label=Northern Low Saxon, Holsteen; da, Holsten; Latin and historical en, Holsatia, italic=yes) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of German ...

dictionary, where it is described as a favourite game of Holstein farmers and townsfolk. Players were dealt 9 cards each and there was a trump suit. The first, "higher paid" tricks were the "fat ones" and the last tricks, paid at half the value, were the "lean ones." The game was also spelt Negenkaart. Around 1865 it is one of the many card games played by

Eiderstedt Eiderstedt (german: Eiderstedt, ; da, Ejdersted; North Frisian: ''Ääderstää'') is a peninsula in the district of Nordfriesland in the German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. Overview It is approximately 30 km in length and 15& ...

farmers at Christmas alongside, Brausbart, Dreikart, Fünfkart, Fips, Karnüffel, Scherwenzel, Hahnrei and others. But by around 1890, it was one of only two card games still being played by farmers in the

region alongside Dreekort. As Nikort or Fedt og Magert it was played in Denmark in the 19th century alongside numerous other games.Feilberg (1864), p. 81.

Footnotes

References

Bibliography

* _. (1865). "Weihnachten in Schleswig-Holstein" in ''Die Grenzboten'', Vol. 4; Vol. 24, pp. 974–986. * _. (1892). ''Zeitschrift für deutsche Kulturgeschichte'', Volume 3, Bauer & Raspe. * Berghaus, Dr. Heinrich Karl Wilhelm (1883). ''Der Sprachschatz der Sassen: ein Wörterbuch der Plattdeütschen Sprache''. Vol. 2 (J–R). Berlin W.: R. Eisenschmidt. * Feilberg, Henning Frederik (1864)
''Fra Heden''
Hadersley. * Schütze , Johann Friedrich (1800). ''Holsteinisches Idiotikon''. Part 1. Hamburg: Heinrich Ludgwig Villaume. French deck card games German card games Shedding-type card games Four-player card games Card games of Schleswig-Holstein {{card-game-stub