Saunigl

Saunigl or Saunigeln was a 19th-century Austrian card game of the shedding type in which the last player left with cards was the Saunigel and risked suffering a beating by the first player out. It may be related to modern Fingerkloppe in which losers also receive a physical punishment, albeit on a lesser scale.

Name
The world Saunigel in the Austrian dialect is recorded as early as 1784 and meant "sow hedgehog", but was also a pejorative term for a "dirty person" as well as a card game in which the last player left holding cards in hand was called the Saunigl.

The game is mentioned during the 19th century in Viennese publications but also in a Carinthian dictionary and dialect dictionary for the region south of the Enns.

History
The game is recorded as early as 1814 in a Viennese play where a poor poet is likened to a Saunigl player, suggesting the game would have been well known at the time. In Doctor Faust's Mantel (Müller 1819), Fledermaus says "We have work to do, we're playing Saunigl." It is also recorded in the German translation of Jacques Offenbach's operetta Les Deux Aveugles where Jerzabek says he can play Preferance, Mariagel, Saunigl, Black Peter and Macao. Despite losing a large sum in Tarok, he ventures to play again.

In 1870, Saunigeln is described alongside Schanzeln, Zwicken, Brantln, Mauschln and Schmaraggln as a popular card game in southern Germany, played with German-suited cards.

Play
No detailed description is given, however several sources say that the last player with cards loses and is called the Saunigl. One source says that the winner, the first player out, beats the loser with a cloth twisted into a whip. Another says the game bears great similarity to Ecarté.

Poem
In the 1860 poem The Playing of Cards (Das Kartenspielen) by J. B. Moser, there is the following description of Saunigl: