Heinrich Hoffmann (1809-1894)

      Hoffman was a physician in Frankfort, working in a mental hospital; he was, it appears, a sort of child psychiatrist, although that subspecialty did not exist as such in his time. Hoffmann was the son of a civil servant and grew to adulthood during a period of political activity in Germany and particularly in Frankfort, becoming involved in some political movements as a young man (Savelsberg, 189-90). He had studied medicine at Heidelberg and Hall, but otherwise spent his entire life in Frankfort.
      In 1844, he composed the German rhymes and drew the pictures of Struwwelpeter as a Christmas gift for his three-year-old son. It was published the next year as Lustige Geschichten und drollige Bilder (it acquired its present name two years later) and proved immediately popular; it sold 1,500 copies during the first four weeks after its publication, and was rapidly translated into various languages. The first English-language edition came out in 1846, and there have been several others published since, including one (fairly loose) by Mark Twain (the entire text of Twain's translation is printed in Lion and Unicorn 20:2 (December 1996) 155-65).
      Hoffman later wrote other children's books, but Struwwelpeter remains his best-known work and, in fact, for over 100 years was "the best known and most influential German picture book" (Metcalf 201). While its popularity has declined somewhat, Zipes says there were over 700 German editions published through 1996, and the characters of the book remain familiar to German children and adults today (v).

Struwwelpeter ("Stroo-vel-pay-tr")

      Struwwelpeter appears as an example of the didactic children's book, in that each of its stories contains a little moral lesson for the reader. Its characters and stories resemble those of other didactic works that had appeared earlier. However, it has remained popular in Germany for 150 years, and enjoyed considerable international repute for at least a century. Metcalf attributes this popularity to the author's concern for the child's perspective and the need for entertainment: "Struwwelpeter was immediately embraced by its intended audience. Children appreciated the drama and child-orientation of the stories as well as their anarchic spirit and grotesque exaggeration. . . parents presumably appreciated the ease with which children swallowed the nicely wrapped educational message." (202)

      Savelsberg says the book's "major theme" is "ideas about bad deeds and about responses to them" (181). It focuses on deviant behavior and how to condition children to socially accepted norms; some of its strangeness today derives from its emphasis on punishment. As Savelsberg notes, punishment is only one option available for reinforcing behavior; rewards for acceptable behavior and stories about those who succeed by complying with social norms may provide positive, rather than negative, reinforcement (183). Modern childcare ideas reject the violence and ridicule that Struwwelpeter uses to sanction negative behavior, substituting positive reinforcement of desirable behavior and gentler, non-violent sanctions for behavior which is not condoned. Further, some of the specific behaviors that Struwwelpeter sanctions, such as pickiness in eating and thumb-sucking are not at issue today, at least not in the severe form that they are in Struwwelpeter (Savelsberg 195). And Struwwelpeter typically eschews punishment by the overt authority figures of other didactic works, instead emphasizing "natural" punishments; there are only two exceptions: Conrad and the Inky Boys (Metcalf 210).
      Savelsberg suggests that the social sanctioning of Struwwelpeter reflects its creation at a time when the political state in Germany was becoming centralized, social status was becoming more dependent on individual merit than on inherited position, and public education was developing (190-92); all of these forces combined to create an interest in Struwwelpeter's socializing message for children.

      Metcalf argues that the primary importance of Struwwelpeter lies not in its message but in its formal elements; it represents "the beginning of modern picture book design through its interplay of picture and text" and offers "a blend of the popular and pedagogical" (201). And she is less confident than Savelsberg that it is intended simply to teach moral lessons.
      Hoffmann's language is not artificially stilted poetry or condescending to its readers, but "follows closely the natural rhythm of the vernacular" (Metcalf 206); however, the text alone would not distinguish it from other didactic works. Rather, it is the artwork, which modern children's illustrators such as Sendak have praised, that moves the work "into the realm of the absurd and hyperreal" (Metcalf 207), hyperbolically expanding or commenting ironically on the accompanying text. The exaggeration and cartoonish character of the illustrations suggests a subversive role, at odds with the overt moral instruction: children vicariously enjoy the rebellious behavior of Hoffmann's odd characters.
      Susan Drain, writing on the VICTORIA e-mail discussion list, also observes that Hoffmann also mocks other didactic verses of the time, giving the specific example of Henry Horsley's *The Affectionate Parent's Gift, and the Good Child's Reward" (1828), which "tells of an affectionate father who takes his children to visit the Lunatic Asylum and Newgate in order to point out the blessings of right reason and the dangers of indulging in petty theft, respectively."
      Thus, it is possible to see Struwwelpeter as an improvement on the more severe moral strictures of its near contemporaries. Hoffmann was well aware of the virtues of exaggeration, if he did not perhaps comprehend the underlying subversion of the moral norms. He wrote: "The book is supposed to evoke fairy-tale-like, horrid, and exaggerated ideas! . . . You cannot touch a child's soul with the absolute truth, or with algebraic or geometrical propositions; instead, you will make it waste away miserably." (Qtd. in Metcalf, 205)

Sources: Jack Zipes, "Introduction," Lion and Unicorn 20:2 (December 1996) ["Struwwelpeter and Classical Children's Literature" v-vi; Eva-Maria Metcalf, "Civilizing Manners and Mocking Morality: Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann's Struwwelpeter," L&U 20:2 (December 1996) 201-16; Joachim J. Savelsberg, "Struwwelpeter at One Hundred and Fifty: Norms, Control, and Discipline in the Civilizing Process," L&U 20:2 (December 1996) 181-200. I also am indebted to Susan Drain's comments on the VICTORIA listserv in 1995 or 96 (unfortunately, I have lost the precise date reference).
 

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