So, about 150 years ago a German doctor, Heinrich Hoffmann, wrote a children’s book with several moral tales to keep children in line. The title character was named StuwwelPeter which loosely translates to Slovenly Peter. The stories warn children of the possible consequences of their (as today’s child psychologists term it) “bad choices”, and it doesn’t hold any punches. If you don’t watch where you are going, you will fall off a pier and drown. If you play with matches, you will set yourself on fire and die. If you tease the baker, he will dump you in a vat of dough, bake you into giant humanoid shaped loafs of bread and feed you to the birds… and you will be dead. Note the theme? These morals are all accompanied with blatant cartoon pictures, in case the child learns better visually. I was one of the many children who benefited(?) by the exposure to this book, and I remember thinking that it was gruesome. I decided to go to the museum today to see what the current thinking was of this approach to child education. I was left with two thoughts:
- There was no reference in the museum to the possible negative effects of this book. Nightmares anyone? When I asked the young lady selling tickets about this, she simply replied that it’s up to the parents to mediate any concerns the children may have.
- The top floor of the museum was designed for children to play (and be noisy). I couldn’t help but to appreciate the irony of a museum dedicated to a book about strongly curtailing poor childhood behavior being overrun by rambunctious and loud children.
Why go?
- If you were reared on this book as a child, you may want to find out more about it.
- If reading this post makes you curious.
- If you have seen everything else of interest in Frankfurt and still have time left on your layover.
What you need to know:
- The address is: Schubertstr. 20; 60325 Frankfurt am Main
- The opening hours are: Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00am to 5:00pm
- There is a small entrance fee.
- This is *not* the Heinrich Hoffmann who was Hitler’s official photographer.
For more information about the museum, check out it’s website.
I found this great description of the book by Vegas Films on YouTube:
Interestingly, the museum displayed Dr. Hoffmann’s self-proclaimed life motto:
“I was and will always be an optimist. People are better than many think; one only has to remain strict and true to oneself, and lenient and benevolent towards others, to demand much from oneself and little from others.”
I find it strange that those thoughts came from the same mind that produced StruwwelPeter, but that is a great motto to live by. Perhaps he should have skipped the book and just published his motto.
PS. The book has gone through numerous editions and has been translated into many languages, so if you have need of a nice Christmas gift for a younger family member (who may benefit from it), it should be easily available.
