Kontraspiel, also called Contra, is a German 5-card plain-trick game for four individual players using 24 cards. Eldest hand has the first right to accept or make trumps. The Unters of Acorns and Leaves (the equivalent of the two black Jacks) are permanent highest trumps, the Wenzels. Kontraspiel is similar to the Scandinavian game Polskpas and is recorded as early as 1811.

Kontra, or as it was spelled in the 17th century, Contra, is clearly derived from the French game la bête, which was characterised by the possibility for some players to call for contre (French for double, attested as early as 1611) against a 'declarer'. Labetenspiel was very popular in the German-speaking countries from the early 17th century. As contra the game is recorded from 1697.

An early mention of Contra appears in 'Amaranthes' ([1]), Nutzbares, galantes und curiöses Frauenzimmer Lexicon of 1715, where it is described as one of the games played with "German cards" i.e. a 32-card German-suited pack, then in a list of games in a 1755 poem. In 1786, it was reported that, along with Trischaken, it was a very popular game among the peasants in German-speaking lands.

The earliest rules appeared in 1773 in Johann Joseph Schmidlin's Catholicon ou Dictionnaire universel de la langue françoise / Catholicon oder französisch-deutsches Universal-Wörterbuch, Vol. C, under the entry 'Contra. (…) [Spiel]', but the first comprehensive account is given in Hammer's 1811 edition of Die deutschen Kartenspiele. and then re-surfaces from 1853 to 1879 in various German games compendia. It may be an elaboration of Polskpas. Having the two black jacks is reminiscent of Euchre.

Kontraspiel was gradually displaced by Skat, which combined elements of Kontraspiel and Tarok and became the dominant German national card game. Today Kontraspiel is of primarily historical interest, though it continues to be studied as a direct forerunner of Skat.

Tens are low. The two Wenzels are the highest members of the trump suit, with the U ranking higher than the U. A Wenzel is not part of its natural suit unless this happens to be the trump suit. If the trump suit is either Hearts or Bells there are 8 trumps. Otherwise there are only seven trumps.

There are four players. Each one receives 5 cards in batches of 2–3 or 3–2. The remaining 4 cards are not used in the game, except for the first of them, which is turned face-up to determine the preferred trump suit. The actual trump suit is decided in a negotiation phase described in the next section.

The standard rules of trick-play as in Whist apply. Eldest hand leads to the first trick. Suit must be followed. The player who played the highest trump, or the highest card of the suit led, wins the trick and leads to the next. To win the game one must win 3 tricks. To make sure that there is always a winner, it is also enough to be the first player to win 2 tricks, so long as the other tricks do not all fall to the same player. A player who does not win a single trick is said to be revolted. A player who wins all 5 tricks is said to make the match.