Deutsches Spielkarten-Museum, Playing card museum in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany
The Deutsches Spielkarten-Museum in Leinfelden-Echterdingen houses an extensive collection of over 30,000 card decks and more than one million individual cards spanning seven centuries and five continents. The holdings include traditional playing cards, fortune-telling cards, and a major collection of Asian-Indian card varieties.
The collection was founded in 1923 in Altenburg by Julius Benndorf and grew to 6,000 different card games by 1939. The museum was later relocated to Leinfelden-Echterdingen, where it now maintains its archive and research facilities.
The collection shows cards from different cultures and time periods, revealing how people around the world have created games and expressed their artistic traditions. Visitors can observe how designs and production techniques vary depending on where and when the cards were made.
The archive is available to visitors on Wednesdays and requires advance registration by phone or email. Plan to spend time browsing the extensive collection and viewing the historical printing blocks and gaming tables on display.
The museum preserves specialized printing presses and historical printing blocks that demonstrate how cards were crafted by hand. These rare tools offer visitors insight into the practical techniques used for card production across centuries.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
