Struwwelpeter at One Hundred and Fifty: Norms, Control and Discipline in the Civilizing Process

Introduction: A Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Deviance and Control in Struwwelpeter

Figure 1.

Struwwelpeter book covers in Spanish, English, German, and Japanese.

One hundred and fifty years ago, in 1845, the now famous and infamous children’s book, Struwwelpeter, was published in Frankfurt. It was written and illustrated by the Frankfurt psychiatrist-physician Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann, ² and 1,500 copies were sold in only four weeks after its publication—only the beginning of a long German success story. ³ Yet, the story did not remain just a German one. Many foreign language translations appeared within ten years after the original publication came out (e.g., English in 1846, Danish in 1847, and Russian in 1848 or 1849) (Sauer 1984; 1995). Struwwelpeter did more than appeal to a supposed German national character. Indeed, its cover is engraved in the minds of millions of readers in many countries (see Figure 1).

In determining the international appeal of Struwwelpeter, a sociological approach can be most useful. In particular, sociology can shed new light on Struwwelpeter’s major theme, that is ideas about bad deeds and about responses to them. The appearance of such ideas and their cultural representation are not arbitrary but bound to conditions of social structure.

Consider evil deeds: Violence against family members was an accepted form of behavior for many people well into the twentieth century—for early exceptions, see Struwwelpeter’s “cruel Fredrick.” It was mostly directed against women and children. Yet, domestic violence became increasingly challenged in the second half of the twentieth century. The [Table 1] challenge to violence against women followed the increasing power of women resulting from their growing levels of education and increasing participation in the labor force (Dixon). Furthermore, laws against theft emerged only when trade became a substantial economic force and the transport of goods was threatened in late medieval England (Hall). And, most recently, white-collar offenses have become challenged as a result of changes in the corporate world and of the growing mobilization of protest movements and organizations such as consumer and environmental advocates (Savelsberg with contributions by Brühl).

Table 1.

Norms, Deviance, Sanctions, and Executors in the Struwwelpeter

Story	Norms	Deviance	Sanction	Sanctioner	Sanction for Sanctioner
	Disciplinary
Intro.	artig; eating; quiet; guided by mother	—	Presents (Bilderbuch)	“Christkind”	none
Struwwelpeter	physical orderliness	long/messy hair; long nails	shaming (“pfui ruft da ein jeder”)	general public	none
Little Suck-a-Thumb	physical discipline	thumb sucking	cutting off thumb	tailor	none
Soup Caspar/Augustus	eating	not eating	death through starvation	nature	none
Fidgety Philip	physical discipline	wiggling	scolding; buried by table cloth angry parents; no food	parents	none
	Civilizing
Cruel Fredrick	non-violence	torture/kill animals; whip his wife (S. Gretchen)	bitten by dog; whip taken; pain, bed rest, bitter medicine	dog	rewards: (F.’s food and wine; watching his whip)
	Tolerance
Inky Boys	tolerance	ridicule person w. black skin	blacken	Niklas	none
	Cautionary
Pauline	safety precautions	play with matches	burning to death	fire/nature	none
Wild hunter	—	falling asleep during hunt	being shot at; breaking wife’s cup	rabbit	negative: hurting child
Johnny Head in-the-Air	caution	non-attentive	shaming; falling; in water	fish	none
Flying Robert	constraint	non-caution	blown away	nature/wind	none

Consider also responses to evil deeds: For example, beliefs in rational and independent actors emerged with the end of aristocratic estate society and its artificial barriers, including their justification through religious doctrine. Such beliefs gained strength with the growth of modern bourgeois classes and the spread of natural law. They were closely tied to beliefs in the functioning of deterrence. Names of eighteenth-century thinkers such as Cesare Beccaria (1986) and Jeremy Bentham (1948) represent this line of thought. Later, with the growth of working class movements, the social conditions of evil came into focus and deterrence perspectives were replaced or at least supplemented by ideas of individual rehabilitation and social reform (Garland; Savelsberg 1992; 1994).

The stories of Struwwelpeter are stories about deeds defined as evil deeds and about punishment. Just like...