Spinning top
The throwing top or preckel is a very old toy that has played an important role in children's street games for centuries. With increasing traffic and the advent of electronic toys, it has largely disappeared from the game repertoire of today's children and young people and has almost been forgotten. The game with the Preckel is a generic type of top game.
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| The children's games |
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| Pieter Brueghel the Elder , around 1560 |
| oil on wood |
| 118 × 161 cm |
| Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna |
Early evidence
Knowledge and practice of the Preckel game in Europe can be traced back for almost 500 years. But the game also has a long tradition in non-European countries such as Vietnam, Japan, India and South Africa. According to the research of game researchers Siegbert A. Warwitz and Anita Rudolf, the game of Preckel is documented for the first time in picture form in the famous painting “ The Children's Games ” by the Dutch peasant painter Pieter Brueghel the Elder from 1560. From the location, posture, gestures and direction of the right-hand player in the Preckel game, Warwitz / Rudolf already interpret the variant of the combat and war game that is known to this day. Two hundred years later, the Polish graphic artist and illustrator Daniel Chodowiecki illustrated the game in his copper engraving from 1774.
The name we know today comes from a relatively recent period. Warwitz / Rudolf found in their surveys going back over three generations that it had been played under the common name "Preckel" in northern Germany at least since the 1940s. In other parts of the country, the name “throwing top” was common for play equipment and games. The throwing top or preckel game was still a widespread and popular street game in Germany in the 1950s and 1960s . In contrast to the whip top , which was preferred by the girls as a game of skill, the rougher Preckel game was considered a typical boys game, which was mostly performed in variations as a combat and war game.
International distribution
The street game known in Germany as the Preckel or Wurfkreiselspiel is widespread in numerous other countries and can already refer to a longer tradition there. In addition to the early appearance documented by Brueghel in the Netherlands or by Chodowiecki in Poland, there are also photo credits from Vietnam, Japan, India or South Africa, each with their own, also ethnically divergent, names. Their similar development and play design do not exclude mutual influences from colonial migrations, for example from the Netherlands to South Africa. In the 1970s and 1980s, the largely forgotten games had to be rediscovered from historical sources in teacher training and student projects .
Play equipment and playing field
The play equipment consists of a pear-shaped, heavy top made of hardwood, which is surrounded by coarse grooves notched in a spiral and ends at its tip in an iron wick. This includes an approximately 50 cm long stable cord with which the Preckel is wrapped and set in a rotating movement by a powerful throw. The ground must be hard and as smooth as possible so that the gyroscopic movement is not slowed down. Only a few square meters of play area are required. The game is usually practiced as a so-called street game outdoors.
Game thought
The simple idea of the game consists in making the play equipment, which is wrapped in a cord, rotate on the ground with an energetic throwing motion.
Game flow
The simplest gameplay is all about making Preckel dance. If several players are involved, a competition is usually already being held to determine whose Preckel will stay in motion the longest after the throw.
Game variants
The fighting game
After Warwitz / Rudolf, the Preckel game was still played in the 1950s and 1960s in a variant as a combat and war game. The idea of the game was to hit Preckel, who was already circling on the ground, with a second throw and, if possible, injure or even split it. This variant was occupied with martial terms such as "aerial bomb" or "air raid alarm". In this form of play, the roles of the players as attacker and attacker constantly changed. If the "enemy" Preckel managed to meet, he would change hands. For this reason, several Preckel always had to be available. The surface was armored with thumbtacks to protect its own Preckel.
The land removal
In this variant, “pecking” was carried out in a playing field marked on the floor. The two or more players each had their own "land", marked by lines, from which a piece of foreign precheckle threw could be removed and added to their own territory. If the Preckel hit the foreign land section, a line could be drawn in the direction of one's own field in order to attach the marked piece of land to one's own country.
literature
- Alfred Cammann (ed.): The world of Low German children's games , Meissner, Elbschloss Bleckede 1970 DNB 367402548 .
- Helmut Spiegel: The Bollerrad has to roll, the Knicker, it has to roll. Lost children's games, told in stories from the Ruhr area . Illustrated by Torsten Kyon, Henslowsky Boschmann, Bottrop 2004, ISBN 3-922750-49-4 .
- Erika Szegedi: Games of other times and peoples, developed with children , Wiss. State examination thesis GHS, Karlsruhe 1998
- Siegbert A. Warwitz (ed.): Games of other times and peoples - discovered and experienced with children . Karlsruhe, 1998
- Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: From the sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition. Schneider Verlag, Baltmannsweiler 2016, ISBN 978-3-8340-1664-5 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: The children's games by Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Ä. , In: This .: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition. Baltmannsweiler 2016, pages 191-195
- ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Kreiselspiele , In: Dies .: Vom Sinn des Spielens. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition. Schneider Verlag, Baltmannsweiler 2016, p. 115
- ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Kreiselspiele , In: Dies .: Vom Sinn des Spielens. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition. Schneider Verlag, Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 115, 116
- ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Kreiselspiele , In: Dies .: Vom Sinn des Spielens. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition. Schneider Verlag, Baltmannsweiler 2016, p. 115
- ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz (ed.): Games of other times and peoples - discovered and experienced with children . Karlsruhe 1998
- ↑ Erika Szegedi: Games of other times and peoples, further developed with children , Wiss. State examination thesis GHS, Karlsruhe 1998
- ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Kreiselspiele , In: Dies .: Vom Sinn des Spielens. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition. Schneider Verlag, Baltmannsweiler 2016, p. 115