Struwwelpeter

The first appearance of Hoffmann's book outside his immediate family circle was in a meeting organized by Frankfurt literary club Tutti Fruti Society (Gesellschaft der Tutti-Frutti) on January 18, 1845. On the evening of that day, Zacharias Löwenthal, a co-founder of publishing company Literarische Anstalt, bought Hoffmann's book for 80 gulden. Hoffmann later wrote that "[in] that night, at 11 o'clock, I had, almost without knowing what I had done, suddenly become an author of juvenile books."[1]

The book first appeared in the Frankfurt marketplace in October of that year under the title Lustige Geschichten und drollige Bilder mit 15 schon kolorirten Tafeln fur Kinder von 3 - 6 Jahren ("funny stories and droll pictures with 15 beautifully coloured panels for children of 3–6 years"). The first version had its illustrations printed with lithographic plates and colored by hand with stencils, the text was printed using typesetting. On October 3, the book was advertised in the Börsenblatt for a retail price of 48 kreuzer.[1]

In 1846, three other editions of the book were published. The second edition had 5,000 copies produced, each of which was priced at 57 kreuzer; Hoffmann's royalty was of 6,25 percent per copy. Hoffmann's name was only partially revealed in the second edition, where he used the pseudonym "Hoffmann Kinderslieb". His authorship of the book was, however, fully revealed to the public in an advertisement featured on a Frankfurter Konversationsblatt publication on December 11, 1846. Hoffmann's real name was only fully displayed in the fifth edition, which was published in 1847.[1]

The third edition was the first to be officially titled Struwwelpeter, though the second edition had already been nicknamed as such by some book reviewers.[1]

The titles Struwelpeter and Strewelpeter have been used in multiple English editions of Struwwelpeter. The name Slovenly Peter was first found in a 1849 American version of the book.[1]

British twin illustrators Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone provided new illustrations for an English translation published in 1950.

In 1847, Struwwelpeter's publishing house sued a Nuremberg publisher for printing the book on broadsheets.[1]

In 1851, the same organization sued publisher Christian Scholz on grounds that he had plagiarized Struwwelpeter by publishing translations of the book in English, Dutch and Swedish. Scholz lost the case and was sentenced to pay a fine of 1,040 gulden, along with court costs of 127 gulden. He was also ordered to destroy all litographic plates and unsold books in his inventory. This became one of the first copyright court cases in Germany.[1]

In 1891 Mark Twain wrote his own translation of the book, but because of copyright issues Twain's "Slovenly Peter" was not published until 1935, 25 years after his death.[6]

English author Edward Harold Begbie's first published book, The Political Struwwelpeter (1898), is of British politics, with the British Lion is as Struwwelpeter, "bedraggled, with long, uncut claws."[13]

W. H. Auden refers to the Scissor-Man in his 1930 poem "The Witnesses" (also known as "The Two"):

And now with sudden swift emergence
Come the women in dark glasses, the humpbacked surgeons
And the Scissor Man.

Adolf Hitler was parodied as a Struwwelpeter caricature in 1941 in a book called Struwwelhitler, published in Britain under the pseudonym Dr. Schrecklichkeit (Dr. Horrors).[2]

The "Story of Soup-Kaspar" is parodied in Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking (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.

English illustrator Charles Folkard's imaginative study "A Nonsense Miscellany," published in 1956 in Roger Lancelyn Green's anthology The Book of Nonsense, by Many Authors, is a seaside scene that incorporated Baron Munchausen, Struwwelpeter, and a variety of characters from the works of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear.[14]

Jamie Rix said that the book inspired him to create Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids when his publisher asked him to write more short stories about rude children.[15] His mother had given him the book as a child and the stories gave him nightmares.[15] Rix wanted to create a similar series of books for his children's generation.[15]

Der Fall Struwwelpeter ("The Struwwelpeter Case"), 1989, by Jörg M. Günther is a satirical treatment in which the various misdeeds in the story - both by the protagonists and their surroundings - are analyzed via the regulations of the German Strafgesetzbuch.

The Jasper Fforde fantasy/mystery novel The Fourth Bear (Hodder & Stoughton, 2006) opens with a police sting operation by the Nursery Crime Division to arrest the Scissorman.

Stamp with two Struwwelpeter characters, Hans Guck-in-die Luft and Ludwig from "Die Geschichte mit den schwarzen Buben", issued on Hoffmann's 200th birthday

German cartoonist F. K. Waechter's Anti-Struwwwelpeter (1970) is a parody of Der Struwwelpeter.[2]

Comic book writer Grant Morrison references "Die Geschichte vom Daumenlutscher" in the first story arc of their Doom Patrol run with the recurring line, "The door flew open, in he ran / The great, long, red-legged scissorman."[16] Doom Patrol member Dorothy Spinner, who has the ability to bring imaginary beings to life, considers among her imaginary friends the characters Flying Robert (a ghost baby balloon thing) and The Inky Boys.

The 2000 AD strip London Falling (June–July 2006), by Simon Spurrier and Lee Garbett, explores bogeymen from English folklore and mythology wreaking havoc in a modern-day setting. Two of the characters, Peter Struwwel and The Tailor, are taken from Der Struwwelpeter.

In the Wildstorm Comics series Top 10, one of the officers in the precinct is called Shock-Headed Pete, ostensibly in reference to his electrical powers.

In a 1991 edition of the Thames Television detective series Van der Valk, entitled "Doctor Hoffman's Children," the detective, played by Barry Foster, solves a series of murders after finding the book in the bedroom of his house, when his wife relates the tale of the scissorman to their granddaughter. The murders were all done in the style of events in the book.[17]

Brief references are made to the book in the film Woman in Gold (2015), when the central character reminisces about her youth in Vienna during the Anschluss.

The Office references the book in Season 2, Episode 18: "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" (2006). Dwight Schrute reads The story of Johnny head-in-the-air and The story of the thumb sucker to the children, but is interrupted by a horrified Michael Scott.

Family Guy references the "Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb" in a cutaway gag in "Business Guy,"[2] the ninth episode in the eighth season, produced in 2009.

In Doctor Who Season 10 Episode 3 "Thin Ice" (2017), The Doctor reads part of "The Story of the Thumb-Sucker" to the children of 1814 London.

German band Rammstein included the song "Hilf Mir" "(Help Me)" on their album Rosenrot (2005) [2] It is about a child whose parents are not at home. She discovers matches and sets herself on fire and burns completely. In the story, the girl's name is Pauline.

XTC were influenced by "The Story of the Thumb-Sucker" when they wrote "Scissor Man".[18] from 1979's Drums and Wires.

The British post-punk band Shock Headed Peters, formed in 1982, took their name from the story.

American post-punk band Slovenly used the popular cover illustration of Struwwelpeter for the cover of their 1987 album, Riposte, on SST Records.