Scherwenzel or Scharwenzel is a 16th century, German, gambling game played with cards and named after the Unters or Jacks that had special privileges.

It appears to have been an elaboration of Grobhäusern or Färbeln played in Germany, Poland, Silesia and Bohemia, but especially in Bavaria in which the Unters were variously known as Scharwenzels, Scherwenzels, Scherers or Wenzels.

The word Wenzel was a short form in German of the male first name Wenzeslaus which is Wenceslas or Wenceslaus in English.

"[5] Around 1600 a poem was published entitled Teutsch- und Frantzösisch Scharwentzel Spiel ("The French and German Game of Scharwentzel") that describes the game as one of bluffing and cheating in which Wenzels and Sevens are important cards and a flush (Fluß) plays a key role.

[8] As the name of a card, probably an Unter, the German-suited equivalent of a Jack, Scherwenzel is mentioned in a 1700 play by Christian Weise, thus implying it was in common usage by then.

[9] Another early record which may hint at the eponymous game occurs in a 1722 natural history book by Johann Friedrich Henkel where he likens 3 Principiis to "the two Scherwenzels (pity there aren't three) which can be turned into any suit in the pack".

[15][16] A 1744 German rendering of Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock translates the game of Lu as Scherwenzel.

[18] According to Adelung (1798), Scherwenzel was a variant of Grobhäusern in which the Jacks function as wildcards, called Wenzels or Scherwen(t)zels.

[14][19] This is borne out by Hempel (1827 & 1833) who describes Grobhäusern in detail and then gives a short description of the differences for Scherwenzel.