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Industrie und Glück (German for 'Industry and Luck') is a pattern of French suited playing cards used to play tarock. The name originates from an inscription found on the second trump card. This deck was developed during the nineteenth century in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the collapse of the empire in World War I, it remained the most widely used tarot deck in Central Europe and can be found throughout the former parts of the empire. Though not designed for cartomancy, these cards were used in Argentine fortune telling decks in the mid-20th century.
Composition
In the Industrie und Glück deck, each suit contains four face cards; the Jack, Cavalier, Queen, and King. The 5s through 10s in red suits and the 1s through 6s in the black suits are removed and 22 trumps are added for a total of 54 cards. In Central European tarock games, the order of the black suits from highest to lowest goes from K, Q, C, J, 10, 9, 8, 7 but the red suits goes from K, Q, C, J, 1, 2, 3, 4. The Sküs (The Fool), named after the French Excuse, is considered the 22nd and highest trump and no longer has its excusing power despite its name. The lowest trump is called the pagat after its Italian equivalent, il bagatto. Unlike the Italian tarocco decks which depict Renaissance allegorical motifs or even the French 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 or Cego decks. The pip cards and face cards lack corner indices.
Around seven versions of this deck were once made but only two survive. The older of the two surviving versions is found primarily in the southern half of the former empire (Hungary, Croatia, Vojvodina, and Trieste) and the other in the northern half (Austria, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Romania). The southern version can also be found where the northern version is sold but is not as widespread. Both share many pictures in the trump suit but some are arranged differently. In the northern version, the 21st trump is nicknamed mond (moon) because it features a crescent moon. This was a result of a mistranslation of the French monde for The World tarot card. The southern version, which is now manufactured only by Modiano and Piatnik, lacks the moon. The Czechs use the northern version but since receiving their independence at end of the First World War, the second trump has lacked the Industrie und Glück inscription.
A 78-card version by Piatnik was once made to play the Austrian game of Droggn although players used only 66 of them. There was also a mysterious 73-card version from the 1930s, also by Piatnik, which was composed like the 54-card deck but with 19 more trumps. It is believed to have been used for a lost version of Minchiate.