History Literature / Struwwelpeter

An episode of ''Series/VanDerValk'', a long-running British crime drama, features a SerialKiller who takes revenge on his victims by subjecting them to the same fates as in the stories. Interestingly enough, the "Johnny Head-in-Air" victim, although intended to drown, does in fact live.

An episode of ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' also featured the book. Dwight Schrute attempts to use it to entertain the children of his coworkers on Bring Your Daughter To Work Day, only for Michael to quickly intervene due to the disturbing nature of the stories, telling Dwight, ''"The kids don't want to hear some weirdo book that your Nazi war criminal grandmother gave you."''

The Doctor reads the book to a bunch of street urchins in [[Series/DoctorWho Doctor Who's]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E3ThinIce Thin Ice]]. The kids just think the stories are fun.

Even in the BasedOnATrueStory war film ''Rescue Dawn'', the German-born USN aviator [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Dengler Dietrich Dengler]] has Flying Robert and his umbrella painted on the side of his plane.

* "The Dreadful Story of Harriet/Pauline and the Matches" ("Die gar traurige Geschichte mit dem Feuerzeug"): Harriet/Pauline plays with matches and [[KillItWithFire burns to death]].

** Pauline, who played with matches.

* MadeOfIncendium: Pauline, who plays with matches. The fire catches her apron string, and then she burns all over, everywhere.

* "The Dreadful Story of Pauline and the Matches" ("Die gar traurige Geschichte mit dem Feuerzeug"): Pauline plays with matches and [[KillItWithFire burns to death]].

* NeverFoundTheBody:

* MadeOfIncendium: Pauline, who plays with matches. The fire catches her apron string, and then she burns all over, everywhere.

* KickTheDog: Frederick kicks a dog before being bitten by it.

%%* KickTheDog: Frederick.

%%* ParasolParachute: Robert.

%% * ShearMenace

%%** Frederick.

%%* DisproportionateRetribution: The thumb-sucker.
%%* TheDogBitesBack: Literally in this case.

%%** Frederick from "The Story of Bad Frederick".

%% * SpaceWhaleAesop

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Playing with matches (especially Lucifer matches, which will ignite on almost anything) is downright dangerous, and can lead to severe burns - even death - and material damage.

%%* MadeOfIncendium: Pauline.

''[[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12116/12116-h/12116-h.htm Der Struwwelpeter]]'' (Shaggy-Peter or ''Shockheaded Peter''), written and illustrated by Heinrich Hoffmann, is an 1845 German children's book filled with cautionary tales. These cautionary tales are [[DarkerAndEdgier more grim than others]], however -- they often end in death or dismemberment for the child. They are a source of plenty of NightmareFuel, too.

* "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 the Scissorman snips them off.

* HumanoidAbomination: Possibly the great, tall, red-legged Scissorman, who arrives (with the speed of teleportation) at the house of a thumb-sucker for the express purpose of mutilating the kid's hands and disappearing again.

[[caption-width-right:350:The nightmare of thumb-suckers everywhere.]]

* {{Anvilicious}}: Bullying, racism and cruelty to animals are downright evil.

* AesopEnforcer: Nikolaus.

* AssholeVictim: Frederick

* BlackComedy: The hare seizing the shotgun and shooting at the huntsman and his wife
* ColorMeBlack: "The Story of the Inky Boys". This is slight variant of the trope as the three boys are not turned into "blackamoors" themselves by the ink, but instead are transformed into solid black silhouettes that hardly look human.
* DisproportionateRetribution: The thumb-sucker.
* TheDogBitesBack: Literally in this case.

* {{Jerkass}}: Frederick from "The Story of Bad Frederick".

* KickTheDog: Frederick.

* MadeOfIncendium: Pauline.

* ParasolParachute: Robert.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Playing with matches (especially Lucifer matches, which will ignite on almost anything) is downright dangerous, and can lead into severe burns - even death - and material damage.

* TooDumbToLive: Most of the children in the stories.
** In the 1998 stage musical adaptation, plotlines were altered slightly so ''everyone'' dies.

* TruthInTelevision: Playing with Lucifer matches really could burn you to death that quickly, though not as cartoonishly. Also, if you stop eating, you'll die, eventually.

%%* BlackComedy

* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Pauline, who played with matches.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Nikolaus dips the racist kids into a gigantic inkwell for harassing a black boy.

An episode of ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' also featured the book. Dwight Schrute attempts to use it to entertain the children of his coworkers on Bring Your Daughter To Work Day, only for Michael to quickly intervene due the disturbing nature of the stories, telling Dwight, ''"The kids don't want to hear some weirdo book that your Nazi war criminal grandmother gave you."''

Needless to say, please don't read these stories to your children if you don't want them to have nightmares.
** As if. "Do not read Roald Dahl stories." "Do not watch Tom&Jerry."

** As if. "Do not read Roald Dahl stories."

* TruthInTelevision: Playing with Lucifer matches really could burn you to death that quickly, though not as cartoonishly. Also, if you stop eating, [[CaptainObvious you'll die]], eventually.

* ValuesDissonance: Today the stories are considered as cruel while stories aimed at children during the late 18th century were in general darker and often filled with someone dying or otherwise suffering horribly for not having known or learned the lection it tried to teach.

* AesopCollateralDamage: The hare nicks the shotgun of the huntsman. And fires! Grand total damage: a) one wet huntsman who avoided the bullet by jumping into the well, b) one scared huntsman's wife, the bullet hitting her coffeecup instead, c) one hare's leveret[[note]]I bet you have to look that up either[[/note]] burned by hot coffee, d) one Aesop (YMMV).