100 Years Getting Annoyed

Its present form was invented in the winter months of 1907/08 by Josef Friedrich Schmidt based on the English game Ludo, in a workshop in Munich-Giesing, Germany.

I remember very clearly the fun nights I had in my youth playing "Mensch ärgere Dich nicht", which literally means: do not get annoyed. Me, my brother and my mother prepared everything in detail: living room table cleaned up, cover as rolling field for the dices, lights on the game and, obviously, figure colors were pre-defined for each player. No matter how hard we tried, my brother ended up winning almost every time and the winner had the privilege to scream out loud "I am the champion of the world". A sentence we heard many times during the years.

The game goes back to an old Indian game called Pachisi, still known today. Its present form was invented in the winter months of 1907/08 by Josef Friedrich Schmidt -a native of Amberg and founder of Schmidt Spiele- based on the English game Ludo, in a workshop in Munich-Giesing.

The simple rules of the classic have not changed substantially since 1914 (start year of its mass production) and while the game was not particularly successful in the first beginning years, it made the breakthrough in the First World War. J. F. Schimdt sent 3000 games to Lazarette (a war hospital), so that the soldiers could pass the boredom. Thanks to this tactic and the subsequent mouth-to-mouth advertisement, it was possible to still entertain large populations across the world, 100 years later.

The game owes its German name to the fact that game figures of other players can be sent back to the starting point and start the game all over again, which obviously, can be quite annoying for the player concerned.

We really did enjoy all the times we played along with friends and family, even today, all loosers still get annoyed every time....!

And since speaking about environment is so in vogue nowadays, in the past they did it so much better: player figures are made out of wood and the board and the packing out of paperboard. Well done Schmidt!