Johann Kaspar Hechtel
Stipple engraving portrait byLeonhard Schlemmer (1800) afterLeonhard Heinrich Hessell (1799)
Born	Johann Kaspar Hechtel (1771-05-01)1 May 1771 Nuremberg, Bavaria,Holy Roman Empire
Died	20 December 1799(1799-12-20) (aged 28) Nuremberg, Bavaria,Holy Roman Empire
Occupations	Businessman, writer, board game designer

Johann Kaspar Hechtel (1 May 1771 – 20 December 1799) was a German businessman, owner of abrass factory inNuremberg, non-fiction writer and designer of parlour games, including the prototype for the Petit Lenormandcartomancy deck. Hechtel is also supposed to have contributed anonymously to some treatises on physics.^[1][2][3][4]

Hechtel was born on 1 May 1771 in Nuremberg, Germany.^[1][2]

Hechtel died on 20 December 1799 in Nuremberg during asmallpox epidemic. He was survived by his wife.^[1][2][5]

• Sammlung freundschaftlicher Denkmale und kleine Lehren der Weisheit und Tugend. Zum Gebrauch in Stammbücher und zur Geistes- und Sittenveredlung junger Leute bestimmt. (Bieling, 1798)
• Second edition:Denkmale der Freundschaft und kleine Lehren der Weisheit und Tugend, zum Gebrauch in Stammbücher und Geistes- und Sittenveredlung junger Leute (Bieling, 1803)
• Third edition:Denkmale der Freundschaft für Stammbücher und moralische Lehren zur Sittenveredlung junger Personen (Bieling, 1809)
• Fourth edition:Denkmale der Freundschaft für Stammbücher und moralische Lehren zur Sittenveredlung junger Personen (Bieling, 1819)
• Beiträge zur geselligen Freude oder Auswahl neuer Karten- Pfänder- und Unterhaltungsspiele zum Nutzen und Vergnügen, mit illumirten Kupfern (Bieling, 1798)
• Pandora, ein neues Würfel- und Gesellschaftspiel mit 24 Fragen und 144 scherzhaften Antworten (Bieling, 1798)
• Das Spiel der Hoffnung, eine angenehme Gesellschaftsunterhaltung mit 36 neuen illumirten Figurenkarten, franz. und deutsch (Le Jeu de l'Esperance, accompagné d'un nouveau jeu de cartes à figures) (Bieling, c1799)

In the mid 19th century, after the death of the famous French fortune-tellerMarie Anne Lenormand, Lenormand's name was used on several cartomancy decks, including a deck of 36 illustrated cards known as the Petit Lenormand or simply Lenormand cards still used extensively today. The 36 card Lenormand deck is modeled on a deck of cards published around 1799 as part ofDas Spiel der Hoffnung (The Game of Hope), a game of chance designed by Hechtel which was still being advertised in 1820. So-called Lenormand decks have the same card numbering, primary symbols and playing card associations as the cards in Hechtel'sDas Spiel der Hoffnung game. Some examples of the game are included in an extensive collection of playing cards bequeathed to theBritish Museum byLady Charlotte Schreiber.Das Spiel der Hoffnung is listed among Hechtel's works in an advertisement by publisher Gustav Philipp Jakob Bieling of Nuremberg dated 1799.^{[4][6][7][8][9]}

The "Game of Hope" cards usually have their playing card equivalents displayed in the upper field or worked into the design, with either the German or French suits being used. Swiss decks (like the first editions of the "Game of Hope") had both the equivalent German and French cards in the upper field. It only uses the 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, and King of each suit; the Deuce (2 card) stands in the place of the Ace, and there are no Jokers.

The game can also be played with standard decks. The54-card French deck discards both Jokers and the 2, 3, 4, and 5 of each suit, keeping the Ace and the Face Cards (King, Queen, and Jack). The48-card German deck discards the 3, 4, and 5 of each suit. The German deck doesn't use Aces and renames the 2 as theAss ("Ace") orDaus ("Deuce"), the 10 as thePanier ("Banner"), the Jack as theUnter (Untermann or "LesserKnave", a sergeant or footman with the suit pip at the lower corner of the field), and the Queen as theOber (Obermann or "Greater Knave", a knight or officer with the suit pip at the upper corner of the field).^{[note 1]} The King (orKoenig) of each suit is shown crowned and holding a scepter, with one or two suit pips in the upper field.

• British Museum: Das Spiel der Hofnung
• Tarot History Forum discussion thread: German Lenormand 1846 / Spiel der Hoffnung 1799

• German non-fiction writers
• Board game designers
• Playing cards
• Cartomancy
• Businesspeople from Nuremberg
• 1771 births
• 1799 deaths
• Deaths from smallpox
• 18th-century German writers
• German male non-fiction writers
• 18th-century German businesspeople

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• Articles with hCards
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