Decrease land

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Losing land is an old no- brainer . The idea of ​​the game is to gradually take away the “land” that has been evenly allocated to them on a playing field from the other players by skillfully throwing a knife. The existence of this knife game has been proven by contemporary witnesses at least since the beginning of the 20th century.

history

The game can be proven in similar forms through images and descriptions in different countries under different names. The so-called Mumbly Peg, for example, of which a picture and a description exist on the wooden planks of a sailor in the South Pacific from the time of the Second World War , was played with pocket knives on a wooden surface or firm ground. It was a matter of appropriating "territory" of the other players by skillfully throwing knives from different starting positions of increased difficulty. The Germanist and comparative literary scholar Paul Michael Lützeler mentions the game “Land Abhaben” in his book “Civil War Global”, which one of his authors played with the local children in the village of Bejt al-Hajar and also comments on the game situation during the civil war phase the sentence: “In the game the deadly seriousness of war is undermined.” The author Dieter Kremp remembers the game in his youth (time of the Second World War) under the name “Messerches”: “Every boy threw his pocket knife from 'Germany' to neighboring countries. If his knife got stuck, he could assign himself to the surrounding land from the stinging area. Whoever owned the largest area in the end was the winner. ”A Russian version of the internationally popular knife game is documented as a girl's version with pictures and text under the name Nojitchki from May 13, 2014.

The play equipment: knife with scabbard, 2009

The game scientist Siegbert Warwitz was able to trace knowledge of the game back to the time of the youth movement at the beginning of the 20th century by interviewing the pre-war generation. With the advent of the youth movement and of the discovery of life in nature was a knife used that "as a multi-purpose tool to drive , build, cutting, peeling, carving or repair was" from cutting bread and bread smearing over the tinkering needs and Boy Scouts and other Youth movement as an indispensable tool was always carried with you. In the form of the so-called sheath knife , which was ready to hand in a sheath on the belt, it became the status symbol of the self-sufficient "ranger" until it was replaced by the further development of the Swiss Army Knife. It made sense to use the ubiquitous knife and the skill in handling it to play.

Early evidence that this game was also played by girls in Germany is the fact that it was mentioned in a game report by Monika Kristen, which dates back to the 1950s and is located in the Rhineland (Düsseldorf). Reporter Elena Potchetova documented with several photos in Gazeta that Nojitchki was still being played as a popular knife game by Russian girls in 2014.

"Take Land" had won its place in the play world of children and young people primarily as a street game and as a game for breaks . The increased building of residential and street areas and the asphalting of the school areas, however, increasingly deprived him of action spaces. After Warwitz, the track of the game gradually disappears in the 1970s with the emergence of the “ peace movement ” and the new forms of the “ New Games ” that it strongly promoted , which outlawed weapon and war games. In the course of increasing abuse by violent people, the wearing and use of certain types of knives , such as the switchblade, have recently become subject to strict legal requirements, which also deprived the original children's game of " removing land" further ground.

Playing field, play equipment and players

The ground for the game is a solid, ideally loamy, stone-free ground in which a knife can get stuck. The playing field consists of a circle four to five feet long in diameter. Its size is flexible. It depends on the number of players, which can consist of two to around four players, and on the choice of gaming device. A compact pocket knife , better a traveling knife or a kitchen knife are suitable as such .

Game flow

The circle marked on the ground is divided into parcels of equal size according to the number of players . In the playing field that is halved, third or quartered in this way, each player is allocated his "land".

The order of the moves is determined via a draw. The beginning player throws his knife into one of the other “countries”. If it gets stuck there, he may draw a line from the edge of the playing field to his own country in the cutting direction and in this way move the borders to the neighboring country. The other players proceed in a similar way in the following actions until a landowner has to give up due to lack of land mass. If a country shrinks to a size previously determined according to the throwing ability, it will be awarded to the last country winner without a fight.

Variations

  • Variations according to the throwing technique

While the type of knife throw is optional in the standard game, a certain throwing technique can be agreed in the rules for advanced, technically experienced players. It should make target accuracy and sticking of the knife more difficult and make correspondingly higher demands. Warwitz / Rudolf call this the "flip" (whereby the knife is grasped by the blade and thrown), the "shock" (whereby the knife is taken by the handle to throw), the "faller" (whereby the knife is dropped vertically) and the "seesaw" (whereby the horizontally held knife is given a twist as it falls).

  • Variations according to the play area and the play equipment

Land removal can also be played like a game of darts on a disc vertically attached to a wall. The knives are then replaced by darts and the fields are re-marked with threads according to the course of the game.

  • Variations according to the starting point

In the variant of the Mumbly Peg, the difficulty of throwing a knife is determined by defining the part of the body from which the knife throw must be started. The back of the hand, the elbow, the mouth, the chin, the shoulder or the head as a starting point can increase the level of demand.

Related games

  • Lionheart : This strategy game , developed by Klaus Teuber in 1997 (new in 2003) and published by Kosmos Verlag , is about expanding the land surrounding your own four castles by as much terrain as possible on a game board until the king's return. This is done by using tactical means and a growing number of knights to take away their territory from neighboring opponents. The board game is designed for two to four children aged twelve and over. In 1997 it was awarded the German Games Prize .

Legal

Italian switchblade, 2014

Play equipment for land clearance is at least one heavy, larger knife . The legal situation regarding the use of certain types of knives, which can also be misused as weapons , is not standardized internationally. In the countries of the European Union , handling is particularly strict today. In Germany, for example, drop knives or switchblades are prohibited items , the use of which in public without justification now constitutes an administrative offense, which is punishable by the amendment of the gun law of April 1, 2008 and can be punished with a fine of up to 10,000 euros and confiscation of the item . The dealing with case knives, in which hidden under control blade is catapulted by a spinner movement of the handle and locked, banned in Germany a few exceptions (Bundeswehr, police).

The changes in the Weapons Act of 2008 should not prevent the socially appropriate use of knives in work and leisure, but should enable the police to confiscate knives carried by young people who are willing to use violence before committing a crime. Exceptions only apply to flick knives that open sideways, the blades of which are not sharpened on both sides and protrude no more than 85 mm from the handle, as well as for groups of people who have a legitimate interest in using them, for example in the context of their job, tradition, sport or hunting . Similar regulations apply in Austria and Switzerland .

With precise knowledge and observance of the legal regulations and restrictions that have been issued in the meantime, the game is still possible today in both private and public areas. In addition, dodging using the variant of the game with darts is unproblematic and even suitable for playing indoors.

literature

  • Erny Hildebrand (Ed.): Land decrease. In: Play - what else? Life experiences from zero to the end of the month , Engeldorfer Verlag, Leipzig 2016, ISBN 978-3-96008-694-9 , no page number
  • Dieter Kremp: Messerches. In: From the wisdom and customs of our rural ancestors. Everyday life in the village in the good old days , Engelsdorfer Verlag, Leipzig 2016.
  • Paul Michael Lützeler: Take Land. In: Civil War global: Human rights ethos and contemporary German-language novel, Verlag Fink Wilhelm GmbH + CompanyKG, 2009, p. 216.
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Remove land. In: Dies .: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition, Schneider, Baltmannsweiler 2016, ISBN 978-3-8340-1664-5 , pp. 144-145.

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Mumbly peg (search Territory)
  2. ^ Paul Michael Lützeler: Land decrease , In: Civil war global: Human rights ethos and German-language contemporary novel, Verlag Fink Wilhelm GmbH + CompanyKG, 2009, p. 216.
  3. ↑ Dieter Kremp: Messerches , In: From the wisdom and customs of our rural ancestors. Everyday life in the village in the good old days , Engelsdorfer Verlag, Leipzig 2016
  4. ↑ a b Nojitchki (petits couteaux)
  5. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz (ed.): Games of other times and peoples - discovered and experienced with children , Karlsruhe 1998
  6. ↑ Erny Hildebrand (Ed.): Land decrease , In: Play - what else? Life experiences from zero to the end of the month , Engeldorfer Verlag, Leipzig 2016
  7. ^ Changes to the gun law on April 1, 2008
  8. ↑ Ordinance on weapons, weapon accessories and ammunition (Weapons Ordinance, WV). Swiss Federal Council, July 1, 2016, accessed on July 8, 2017 .
  9. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Land decrease , In: Dies .: From the sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition, Schneider, Baltmannsweiler 2016, p. 145.
  10. ↑ ibid, p. 145.
  11. ↑ ibid, p. 145
  12. ↑ Mumbly peg
  13. ^ Lionheart, The King Returns, 2003
  14. ↑ § 42a WaffG
  15. ↑ Federal Ministry of the Interior: Amendments to Gun Law 2008
  16. ↑ Weapons Act Annex 2 ( Weapons List), Section 1, Number 1.4.1, and Annex 1, Section 1, Subsection 2, No. 2.1.2
  17. ^ Changes to the gun law on April 1, 2008
  18. ↑ Annex 2 (list of weapons) , section 1, number 1.4.1 and 1.4.3 WaffG
  19. ↑ Ordinance on weapons, weapon accessories and ammunition (Weapons Ordinance, WV). Swiss Federal Council, July 1, 2016, accessed on July 4, 2017 .

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