History Literature / Struwwelpeter

* TokenAdult: Out of all the victims, only one of them is an adult.

* "The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb" ("Die Geschichte vom Daumenlutscher"): Little Suck-a-Thumb's mother warns him not to suck his thumbs, but he does anyway. So a tailor snips them off.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scissorman1.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy There once was a boy who liked to suck his thumbs. His mother asked him to stop, but he wouldn't. So she cut off his thumbs. Now he has no thumbs. Good night.]]]]

* "Shockheaded Peter" ("Struwwelpeter")[[note]]"Struwwel" in this context is hard to translate, as it literally means "strawlike" (as in Peter's head looks like a bunch of straw due to how unkempt it is), but there isn't really an equivalent word in English. As such, the most common English localization changes it to "Shockheaded" since it also looks like Peter has been electrocuted, thus making his hair stand up[[/note]]: Peter doesn't groom himself, until he is universally detested.

* "Shockheaded Peter" ("Struwwelpeter")[[note]]"Struwwel" in this context is hard to translate, as it literally means "strawlike" (as in Peter's head looks like a bunch of straw due to how unkempt it is), but there isn't really an equivalent word in English. As such, the most commont English localization changes it to "Shockheaded" since it also looks like Peter has been electrocuted, thus making his hair stand up.[[/note]]: Peter doesn't groom himself, until he is universally detested.

* "Shockheaded Peter" ("Struwwelpeter"): Peter doesn't groom himself, until he is universally detested.

* TalkingAnimal:
-->''The pussy-cats heard this,''
-->''And they began to hiss,''
-->''And stretch their claws,''
-->''And raise their paws;''
-->''"Me-ow," they said, "me-ow, me-o,''
-->''You'll burn to death, if you do so."''

** Don't be racist or a giant will dip you in ink.

* DubNameChange: Common in the best-known English translation. Of the protagonists, Pauline becomes Harriet, Kaspar Augustus, Nikolaus Agrippa, and Hans Johnny. Additionally, the woman who Frederick attacks, Gretchen, becomes Mary, and the unnamed dog in the same poem is given the name Trey.

* MayItNeverHappenAgain: In ''The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb'', a boy is [[StillSucksThumb a frequent thumb-sucker]]. His mother hires a tailor to [[{{Fingore}} cut his thumbs off]] with shears so that he'll never be able to suck them again.

** A similar effect is used in "The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb". After Suck-a-Thumb's mother has warned him of the consequences of sucking his thumb, the page ends with "the thumb was in, alas, alack!". And turning the page reveals the page image shown above, which is notorious for making the book really frightening.

** Frederick gets bit by a dog he was tormenting and is laid up in bed; then to add insult to injury, the dog steals Frederick's supper.

%%* AesopEnforcer: Nikolaus.

** The three boys who bully the black boy.

* ParasolParachute: How Robert flies away in the storm.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: The three boys who bully the black boy. [[spoiler: Nikolaus punishes them by dipping them in a gigantic inkwell.]]

%% * ScareEmStraight

* SpaceWhaleAesop: Don't be racist or you'll be dipped in ink.

The book was [[TheMovie adapted into a children's film]] by film producer Fritz Genschow in 1955. However, the movie- unlike the book- gives almost everyone, even [[BackfromtheDead the two children who died]], a [[HappyEnding]].

* RascallyRabbit: In the "The Story of the Man That Went Out Shooting", a huntsman goes hunting hares, but is unaware that a hare is already watching him from a bush, laughing at him and thumbing his nose at him behind his back. When the huntsman then unwisely takes a nap beneath a tree, the hare steals his gun (and dons his spectacles). Cue the hare chasing the huntsman with the gun, and the huntsman screaming for help and finally jumping into a well so save himself while the hare fires a bullet narrowly over him. This is the only story in ''Struwwelpeter'' in which the protagonist is not a misbehaving child, thus framing the huntsman's humiliation by the hare as a just punishment.