Struwwelpeter
Encyclopedia
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
children's book by Heinrich Hoffmann
Heinrich Hoffmann (author)
Heinrich Hoffmann was a German psychiatrist, who also wrote some short works including Der Struwwelpeter, an illustrated book portraying children misbehaving.- Early life and education:...
. It comprises ten illustrated
Illustration
An illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...
and rhymed stories, mostly about children. Each has a clear moral
Moral
A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim...
that demonstrates the disastrous consequences of misbehavior in an exaggerated way. The title of the first story provides the title of the whole book. Literally translated, Struwwel-Peter means Shaggy-Peter.
History
As children's literature scholar Penni Cotton writes, Hoffmann wrote Struwwelpeter in reaction to the lack of good children's books. Intending to buy a picture book as a Christmas present for his three-year-old son, Hoffmann instead wrote and illustrated his own book. Hoffmann was persuaded by friends to publish the book anonymously as Lustige Geschichten und drollige Bilder mit 15 schön kolorierten Tafeln für Kinder von 3–6 Jahren (Funny Stories and Whimsical Pictures with 15 Beautifully Coloured Panels for Children Aged 3 to 6) in 1845. It was not until the third edition in 1858 that the book was published under the title Struwwelpeter. The book became very popular among children throughout Europe, and, writes author and researcher Penni Cotton, the pictures and characters showed a great deal of originality and directness.Struwwelpeter has been translated
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
into several languages. The first English translation appeared in 1848. Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
's English translation of the book is called "Slovenly Peter." A link to an English translation of the entire book is here.
In 2006, Fantagraphics Books published the first completely digital version of Struwwelpeter, reinterpreted and illustrated by Bob Staake
Bob Staake
Bob Staake is an American illustrator, cartoonist, children's book author and designer. He lives and works in Chatham, Massachusetts on the elbow of Cape Cod....
.
Struwwelpeter was republished in English by Dover in 2010.
Stories
In "Die Geschichte vom bösen Friederich" (The Story of Bad Frederick), a violent boy terrorizes animals and people. Eventually he is bitten by a dog, who goes on to eat the boy's sausages while he is bedridden.
In "Die gar traurige Geschichte mit dem Feuerzeug" (The Dreadful Story of the Matches), a girl plays with match
Match
A match is a tool for starting a fire under controlled conditions. A typical modern match is made of a small wooden stick or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by frictional heat generated by striking the match against a suitable surface...
es and burns to death.
In "Die Geschichte von den schwarzen Buben" (The Story of the Black Boys), Nikolas (that is, Saint Nicholas
Saint Nicholas
Saint Nicholas , also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century saint and Greek Bishop of Myra . Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker...
) catches three boys teasing a dark-skinned boy. To teach them a lesson, he dips the three boys in black ink, to make them even darker-skinned than the boy they'd teased.
"Die Geschichte von dem wilden Jäger" (The Story of the Wild Huntsman) is the only story not primarily focused on children. In it, a hare steals a hunter's musket
Musket
A musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth bore long gun, fired from the shoulder. Muskets were designed for use by infantry. A soldier armed with a musket had the designation musketman or musketeer....
and eyeglasses and begins to hunt the hunter. In the ensuing chaos, the hare's child is burned by hot coffee and the hunter falls into a well, presumably to his death.
In "Die Geschichte vom Daumenlutscher" (The Story of the Thumb-Sucker), a mother warns her son not to suck his thumbs
Thumb sucking
Thumb sucking is a behavior found in humans, chimpanzees, captive Ring-tailed Lemurs, and other primates. It usually involves placing the thumb into the mouth and rhythmically repeating sucking contact for a prolonged duration...
. However, when she goes out of the house he resumes his thumb sucking, until a roving tailor
Tailor
A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...
appears and cuts off his thumbs with giant scissors.
"Die Geschichte vom Suppen-Kaspar" (The Story of the Soup-Kaspar) begins as Kaspar, a healthy, strong boy, proclaims that he will no longer eat his soup. Over the next five days he wastes away and dies.
In "Die Geschichte vom Zappel-Philipp" (The Story of the 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.
"Die Geschichte von Hans Guck-in-die-Luft" (The Story of Johnny Head-in-Air) concerns a boy who habitually fails to watch where he's walking. One day he walks into a river; he is soon rescued, but his writing-book drifts away.
In "Die Geschichte vom fliegenden Robert" (The Story of the Flying Robert), a boy goes outside during a storm. The wind catches his umbrella and sends him to places unknown, and presumably to his doom.
Stage adaptations
Shockheaded PeterShockheaded Peter (musical)
Shockheaded Peter is a 1998 musical using the popular German children's book Der Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffmann as its basis.-Productions:* 1998 West Yorkshire Playhouse* 1999 Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater* 2002 Piccadilly Theatre...
(1998) is a musical created by Julian Bleach
Julian Bleach
Julian Bleach is an English actor who is best known as co-creator and "M. C." of Shockheaded Peter, a musical entertainment based on the works of Heinrich Hoffmann, which won the 2002 Olivier Award for Best Entertainment.Bleach trained at LAMDA...
, Anthony Cairns, Julian Crouch, Graeme Gilmour, Tamzin Griffin, Jo Pocock, Phelim McDermott, Michael Morris
Michael Morris
Michael Morris may refer to:*Michael Morris, 1st Baron Killanin , Irish lawyer and political figure, became the first Lord Killanin in 1900....
and The Tiger Lillies
Tiger Lillies
The Tiger Lillies are a three-piece band, formed in 1989 and based in London. They have toured worldwide and won acclaim with their opera Shockheaded Peter....
(Martyn Jacques
Martyn Jacques
Martyn Jacques is a British musician, most notable for being a founder of the independent band Tiger Lillies. He is a lyricist, vocalist, and musician who plays accordion, piano, and ukulele....
, Adrian Huge and Adrian Stout). The production combines elements of pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
and puppetry
Puppetry
Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance which involves the manipulation of puppets. It is very ancient, and is believed to have originated 30,000 years BC. Puppetry takes many forms but they all share the process of animating inanimate performing objects...
with musical versions of the poems with the songs generally following the text but with a somewhat darker tone. Whereas the children in the poems only sometimes die, in the musical they all do. Commissioned by the West Yorkshire Playhouse
West Yorkshire Playhouse
The West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, England is a theatre which opened in March 1990 as part of the regeneration of the Quarry Hill area of the city...
in Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
and the Lyric Hammersmith
Lyric Hammersmith
The Lyric Theatre, also known as the Lyric Hammersmith, is a theatre on King Street, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, which takes pride in its original, "groundbreaking" productions....
in West London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the show debuted in 1998 in Leeds before moving to London and subsequently to world tours.
Struwwelpeter (2004), is a work for narrator and orchestra was staged in the Athens Concert Hall as the main Christmas program of Kamerata Orchestra of Friends of Music. The music was written by Alexandros Mouzas
Alexandros Mouzas
Alexandros Mouzas is a Greek composer. He studied composition with Theodore Antoniou, advanced theory with Haris Xanthoudakis and electronic music with Dimitris Kamarotos....
and was commissioned by the Athens Concert Hall. The production ran for 8 sold-out performances.
Struwwelpeter – In English! (2006) was taken to the 60th Edinburgh Festival in August. The production used a variety of magic, mime, physical theatre, and black-comedy to recreate the tales. The show had a sell-out run and returned in 2007 for a second run of the sell out show. The show was directed and performed by Owen Daniel, Susannah Ashfield, Isobelle Miller, Alexandra Gillam and Perran Crosley.
Devilish Children and the Civilizing Process (2010) is a stage play adapted, produced, directed and performed by the Dream Theatre Company of Chicago. It is based on several of the stories from Der Struwwelpeter, including "The Story of Cruel Frederick", "The Dreadful Story of Pauline and the Matches" and "The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb". It also includes an adaption of "Cry Baby", from Slovenly Betsy, another children's book written by Heinrich Hoffmann
Heinrich Hoffmann
Heinrich Hoffmann was a German photographer best known for his many published photographs of Adolf Hitler.-Early life and career:...
and illustrated by Walter Hayn, in the spirit of Struwwelpeter; it was published in 1917 for an American audience. It is a liberal adaption written by Dream Theatre Company's co-founder and Artistic Director Jeremy Menekseoglu. It was originally performed for Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
(a theatre tradition). The play is a bit more ghoulish than the original poems. It places a misbehaving 3-year-old Karl, in a 19th century boarding school, where he will be "taught to be civilized" by the "Devilish Children" as they go through "a series of grotesque cautionary tales in which bad children get far worse than they deserve". The original Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
performance featured Annelise Lawson, Chad Sheveland, Judith Lesser, Bil Gaines, Rachel Martindale, Mishelle Apalategui, Anna Menekseoglu and Jeremy Menekseoglu; was designed by Anna Weiler, Giau Truong and Jeremy Menekseoglu; and staged managed by Kristi Bogart.
Film Adaptations
Little Suck-a-ThumbLittle Suck-a-Thumb
Little Suck-a-Thumb is a short film by writer/director David Kaplan, a psychosexual interpretation of the infamous cautionary tale from Heinrich Hoffman's storybook Struwwelpeter. It stars Cork Hubbert , Evelyn Solann, and Jim Hilbert as the Great Tall Scissorman...
(1992), is a psychosexual interpretation of the infamous cautionary tale from Heinrich Hoffman's storybook. The short film by writer/director David Kaplan
David Kaplan
David Kaplan is the name of:* David Kaplan , American film director* Dave Kaplan, American Mixed Martial Artist* David Kaplan , American philosopher* David Kaplan...
stars Cork Hubbert
Cork Hubbert
Cork Hubbert was an American film and television actor.Hubbert was born Carl Hubbert in Pendleton, Oregon. He is best known for the roles of Luther on the American television show The Charmings, Rollo Sweet in Under the Rainbow and Brown Tom in the Ridley Scott film Legend...
(The Ballad of the Sad Café
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
The Ballad of the Sad Café is a novel by Carson McCullers.-Plot:The Ballad of the Sad Café opens on the set of a small, isolated Southern town...
), Evelyn Solann, and Jim Hilbert as the Great Tall Scissorman. It won awards at the 1992 Chicago Film Festival, the 1992 Cork Film Festival
Cork Film Festival
The Cork Film Festival is a film festival held annually in Cork City, Ireland. It was established in 1956 and has grown to be an internationally recognised festival, particularly in the area of short films....
, and the 1993 Grenoble
Grenoble
Grenoble is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère...
Film Festival. It was also awarded 2nd place at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts annual film festival and was screened as an Official Selection at the 1992 Munich International Festival of Film Schools. It is collected with 2 other short films on the DVD Little Red Riding Hood and Other Stories.
Influence and references
M.J. Trow in "The Adventures of Inspector Lestrade" (ISBN 978-0895263438) recreates each of the cautionary tales as the work of a serial killer.
Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison is a Scottish comic book writer, playwright and occultist. He is known for his nonlinear narratives and counter-cultural leanings, as well as his successful runs on titles like Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, New X-Men, Fantastic Four, All-Star Superman, and...
drew inspiration from Struwwelpeter during his tenure on the DC comic Doom Patrol
Doom Patrol
The Doom Patrol is a superhero team appearing in publications from DC Comics. The original Doom Patrol first appeared in My Greatest Adventure #80...
when inventing several enemy monsters. The Tailor from The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb provided inspiration for the Scissormen
Scissormen
In the DC comic book Doom Patrol, the Scissormen are a fictional race of beings that come from the metafictional city of Orqwith.The authors of the book of Orqwith based the Scissormen on The Tailor from The Tale of Little Suck-a-Thumb in the children's picture book Struwwelpeter...
in issues #19 to #22, where Struwwelpeter is quoted directly, and apparitions named The Inky Boys and Flying Robert appear in #25, along with a special cameo appearance by a Scissorman.
W. H. Auden
W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...
refers to the Scissor-Man in his 1930's poem "The Witnesses" (also known as "The Two"):
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
was parodied as a Struwwelpeter caricature in 1941 in a book called Struwwelhitler, published in Britain under the pseudonym Dr. Schrecklichkeit (Dr. Horrors).
The Story of Soup-Kaspar is parodied in Astrid Lindgren
Astrid Lindgren
Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren , 14 November 1907 – 28 January 2002) was a Swedish author and screenwriter who is the world's 25th most translated author and has sold roughly 145 million copies worldwide...
's Pippi Longstocking
Pippi Longstocking
Pippi Longstocking is a fictional character in a series of children's books by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren, and adapted into multiple films and television series...
(1945), with a tall story about a Chinese boy named Peter who refuses to eat a swallow's nest served to him by his father, and dies of starvation five months later.
American composer Michael Schelle
Michael Schelle
Michael Schelle , born January 22, 1950 in Philadelphia, is an award-winning composer of contemporary concert music. He is also a conductor, author and teacher. Schelle grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey, where he studied piano and conducting with Walter Schroeder. After receiving a...
composed a song cycle based on the Struwwelpeter stories for tenor singer and piano in 1991. He revised the piece for tenor and chamber ensemble in 2006.
The German-American character Dwight Schrute
Dwight Schrute
Dwight Kurt Schrute III is a character on NBC's The Office portrayed by Rainn Wilson. He originally exactly resembled Gareth Keenan from the original UK version of The Office. Dwight is the top salesman and former acting manager for the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company and has won numerous awards for...
reads Struwwelpeter to a group of children on a 2006 episode of The Office
The Office (US TV series)
The Office is an American comedy television series broadcast by NBC. An adaptation of the original BBC series of the same name, it depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company...
.
In the Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
episode, Business Guy
Business Guy
"Business Guy" is the ninth episode of the eighth season of the animated television series Family Guy. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on December 13, 2009. The episode centers on Peter as he assumes temporary control of his father-in-law Carter Pewterschmidt's...
, a cutaway gag retells the story of the thumb sucker, however instead of the tailor, it is the boy's mother who cuts off the boy's thumbs.
Jasper Fforde
Jasper Fforde
Jasper Fforde is a British novelist. Fforde's first novel, The Eyre Affair, was published in 2001. Fforde is mainly known for his Thursday Next novels, although he has written several books in the loosely connected Nursery Crime series and begun two more independent series: The Last Dragonslayer...
's novel The Fourth Bear
The Fourth Bear
The Fourth Bear is a mystery/fantasy novel by Jasper Fforde published in July 2006. It is Jasper Fforde's sixth novel, and the second in the Nursery Crimes series...
features a town heavily influenced by "cautionary tales" based on stories from Struwwelpeter.
In 2005, the German band Rammstein
Rammstein
Rammstein is a German Neue Deutsche Härte band from Berlin, formed in 1994. The band consists of members Till Lindemann , Richard Z. Kruspe , Paul H. Landers , Oliver "Ollie" Riedel , Christoph "Doom" Schneider and Christian "Flake" Lorenz...
released "Hilf mir" on the album "Rosenrot
Rosenrot
Rosenrot is the fifth album by German Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein. It was released on October 28, 2005 in Germany, December 6, 2005 in Canada, and March 28, 2006 in the United States. A limited edition with a bonus DVD is also available...
", a song inspired by "Die gar traurige Geschichte mit dem Feuerzeug".
'Snip Snap' by 1980s Yugoslavian band Videosex
Videosex
Videosex was a prominent synthpop group based in Yugoslavia . The group was led by the singer Anja Rupel. They recorded four albums. Their debut album, Videosex 84 appeared in 1983 and they played with bands such as Ekatarina Velika and Otroci socializma in Belgrade...
uses as its lyrics an English version of 'Little Suck a Thumb'
Paulinchen, the young girl burned to death, was featured in campaign posters of the Christian Democratic Union
Christian Democratic Union
Christian Democratic Union may refer to:* Christian Democratic Union * Christian Democratic Union * Christian Democratic Union * Christian Democratic Union * Christian Democratic Union...
Party in German elections in the 1990's. Playing up on her green dress and red bows and shoes, voters were warned "keine rot-grünen Experimente!" ("no red-green experiments!"), the implication being that a coalition of the SPD
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
(Social Democrats, who traditionally use red in their campaign material) and Greens would entail a disastrous outcome for Germany.