Struwwelpeter: the 19th-century book that scared mid-19th century German kids into behaving

Heinrich Hoffman, a German doctor from Frankfurt who also worked as a psychiatrist, wrote his original edition of his children’s book “Lustige Geschichten und drollige Bilder mit 15 schon kolorirten Tafeln fur Kindervon 3–6 Jahren” (or Funny stories and droll pictures with 15 color plate, for children ages 3–6) in 1845 and its most popular character, Struwwelpeter, or if you prefer “Shockheaded Peter”, whose name later became the book’s title, appeared last.
In six short, illustrated stories, the author told macabre moral tales, including one of a boy who wasted away after refusing his soup, another who lay writhing in pain after a mistreated dog exacted revenge, and yet another who had his thumb cut off after he sucked on it one too many times.
And Struwwelpeter’s sin was that he never cut his nails, bathed, or combed his hair, and his punishment was probably the most cruel, as nobody loved him.

The New York Public Library’s rare books collection holds still today one of the original copies from 1845, with its original illustrations hand-colored by Hoffman himself.
When the library purchased this copy in 1933, it was just one of four known extant copies of the first run!
The book itself is a little volume with just 15 pages, each printed only on one side, and the author put it together as a Christmas present for his three-year-old son, when no other children’s book would do.
However is possible that the book’s generation was less spontaneous and that Hoffman had tried out the stories on his young patients over time, and his book club friends, who had some power in German publishing at the time, encouraged him to release it to the wider public.
In fact, the first appearance of the book outside his immediate family circle was in a meeting organized by Frankfurt literary club Tutti Frutti Society (Gesellschaft der Tutti-Frutti) on 18 January 1845 and, on the evening of that day, Zacharias Löwenthal, a co-founder of publishing company Literarische Anstalt, bought it for 80 gulden.

The original run was at least 1,500 copies, possibly as many as 3,000, as Hoffman reported in a letter to a friend, and sold out within about two years, prompting a second edition, in which revisions were made to the original drawings, while even later versions further elaborated the illustrations, moved Struwwelpeter to the front of the book, and added more stories.
Either way the book became enduringly popular and, by 1848 it was already in its sixth edition and had sold more than 20,000 copies!

One of the most famous stories is “Die Geschichte vom Daumenlutscher”, literally “The Story of the Thumb-Sucker”, in which a mother warns her son Konrad not to suck his thumbs. However, when she goes out of the house he resumes his thumb-sucking, until a roving tailor appears and cuts off his thumbs with giant scissors. This creepy character quickly entered in popular culture, appearing later in several texts including W.H. Auden’s poetry and even Tim Burton’s creature Edward Scissorhands.

Hoffman spared none of his protagonists, and when they misbehaved, they were punished.
In “Die Geschichte vom bösen Friederich”, “The Story of Wicked Frederick”, his protagonist, for example, was nasty to all creatures, pulling wings off of flies, killing birds, and throwing kittens down the stairs.
But when he beat his dog without mercy, the dog turned on him. Frederick ends up in the bed, wounded and sick, and the dog is never punished, and even gets to eat the boy’s dinner directly at the table!

In “Die gar traurige Geschichte mit dem Feuerzeug”, or “The Very Sad Tale with the Matches”, a girl, Pauline, in the original German version, plays with matches, accidentally ignites herself and burns to death, and only her cats mourn her.

There is also “Die Geschichte von den schwarzen Buben”, “The Story of the Inky Boys”, a story of three white boys who harass a black boy for the color of his skin.
The language used to describe the black boy wouldn’t be published today, and the illustration shows the white boys clothed and the black boy in a loincloth. The boys are punished for making fun of the boy for the color of his skin, but as part of their punishment, they’re dipped in black ink. The lesson might be that they should learn to accept difference, but at the time being black was still a problem.

Most of the original stories featured naughty children, but one, “Die Geschichte von dem wilden Jäger” (“The Story of the Wild Huntsman”) had a hare as a protagonist, with a hunter who foolishly falls asleep in the field, and it is the only story not primarily focused on children. The hare steals a hunter’s musket and eyeglasses and begins to hunt the hunter but, in the ensuing chaos, the hare’s child is burned by hot coffee and the hunter jumps into a well.

“Die Geschichte vom Suppen-Kaspar”, “The Story of Soup-Kaspar”, begins as Kaspar (or “Augustus” in some translations), a healthy, strong boy, proclaims that he will no longer eat his soup. Over the next five days, he becomes skinny, wastes away, and dies. The last illustration shown is of his grave, which has a soup tureen atop it.

In “Die Geschichte vom Zappel-Philipp”, or “The Story of Fidgety Philip”, a boy who won’t sit still at dinner accidentally knocks all of the food onto the floor, to his parents’ great displeasure, while “Die Geschichte von Hans Guck-in-die-Luft” or “The Story of Johnny Look-In-The-Air” concerns a boy who habitually fails to watch where he is walking. One day he walks into a river and, even if he is soon rescued, his briefcase drifts away.
In. “Die Geschichte vom fliegenden Robert”, “The Story of Flying Robert”, a boy goes outside during a storm.
The wind catches his umbrella and lifts him high into the air, with the boy sailing into the distance.

Either way, as the book was reworked over the years and illustrations became more and more elaborate with more details, even if the originals remain better, enchanting, disturbing on their own, and still today we can only imagine the effect they had on German children in the mid-19th century.