Turning over to scary: Struwwelpeter

If you have read our last post about Lois Lenski, you hopefully enjoyed the introduction of her Houseboat Girl and her Strawberry Girl. Wonderful literature like this is one part of our blog. The other part is also wonderful, but to a greater extent the stories and illustrations are very scary. Both the wonderful and the scary children books can be found in the Special Collections of the Milner Library (Illinois State University, Normal, IL). This post will show you the beauty of the original edition of Heinrich Hoffmann's Struwwelpeter (The Slovenly Peter) and its cruelness. Be aware, some of the illustrations will be terrifying, at least if you are part of Hoffmann's target audience "children aged 3 to 6".

Heinrich Hoffmann did not find a suitable picture book for his son

Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann was a German psychiatrist. In 1844, when he tried to buy a picture book as a Christmas gift for his three-year-old son, he wasn't satisfied. There were only books with long tales, stupid picture collections, dull moralizing stories, and they were not appropriate for children at all. So he bought a blank notebook and began to create his own book "Der Struwwelpeter".

The first page sets the context (as it can be seen in the pictures above, in German and in English): If children have been good like Hoffmann's son, they receive wonderful books. The lovely Christmas illustrations make the reader think that only lovely stories will follow. But, Der Struwwelpeter shows what happens to children that misbehave. Keep on reading if you want to discover it.

A book against carelessness and disobedience

The Struwwelpeter's verses and drawings teach the consequences of all forms of carelessness and disobedience:

But Pauline said, "Oh, what a pity!
For, when they burn, it is so pretty;
They crackle so, and spit, and flame;
And Mamma often burns the same.
I'll just light a match or two
As I have often seen my mother do."

Consequences of misbehavior are cruel, and the illustrations show it in detail

The consequences can be seen in the illustrations on the right. I don't have to mention that it's cruel. Hoffmann understood exactly how to hyperbolize which led to these horrifying, but quaint illustrations.


Another example, which did not end with a pile of ashes but instead with an injured boy lying in his bed, underlines that it is dangerous to torture dogs. It is the "Story of the Cruel Frederick".

This example shows that the verses (even if they are wonderful, at least in German, the original language of the book) are dispensable to understand the story.

Learn more about the scary illustrations of the Struwwelpeter

If you want to learn more about the Struwwelpeter, feel free to come back to our blog. You might also want to take a look at the original edition (1878, in German) which can be accessed in the Special collections of the Milner Library in Normal, IL. A special edition in English (1940) is also available. The original edition is not the first edition. Hoffmann was worried about his reputation as a psychiatrist, so he only accepted to publish the book under the pseudynom "Reimerich Kinderlieb". Later it became popular and Hoffmann revealed his name. If you become a Struwwelpeter enthusiast, visit the Struwwelpeter Museum in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

By the way, the author of this blogpost is German, and he had to read this book when he was a child. Did it lead to better behavior? Who knows?!