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  home   >   collection   >   Frankfurter Schützenkarte

In 1862, Maximilian Frommann, Darmstadt, produced a pack to commemorate a special event; this is explained on the Ace of Clubs:

The card shows the festival grounds of the first German Shooting Festival in a bird's-eye view. The pack is often called "Frankfurter Schützenkarte".

On the other Aces single buildings on the festival grounds are depicted. You can recognize them on the overview, too:

Spades:	Fest-Halle (Festival Hall)
Hearts:	Gabentempel (Gift Temple)
Diamonds:	Eingangs-Pforte (Entrance Gate)

Most of the court cards are related to riflemen, but a lot of them have national or nationalistic allusions.

Clubs:	King	Tirolian mountain marksman, freedom fighter Andreas Hofer (because of the initials on the belt)
	Queen	Festival lady (with the German flag) at the river Rhine
	Jack	Frenchman (Napoleon III) threatens across the river Rhine
Spades:	King	Rifleman with fixed bayonet
	Queen	Festival lady with standard
	Jack	Englishman ("John Bull") observes the German fleet
Hearts:	King	Rifleman with standard "Ueb Aug & Hand für's Vaterland" (Train eye and hand for your native country)
	Queen	Germania keeps watch at the river Rhine
	Jack	Dancing fool with targets
Karo:	King	Gymnast with the German flag with the motto "Gut Heil" (gymnasts' greeting)
	Queen	Francofurtia with the coat of arms of Frankfurt
	Jack	Dancing fool with targets