Kings Journal - issue 50! A book for kids?!

In Kings Journal I write about Bara topics, comics, games and places I visited.
This is issue 50! Congratulations Kings Journal! You made it in a time, where reading is tiring and people prefer to follow easy phrases no matter if good or bad.
And guess what?! Everything has consequences.

An old German book portrays the connection of action and cause with stories written in rhymes, whose content might shock you.
And all stories show consequences.
Let me show you one of the first books ever created for children. Illustrated with many artworks it can also be seen as an early comic.

The book's name is: "Der Struwwelpeter"
"Funny stories and cute artworks for children between 3-6 years"
by Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann

The creation
We have the year 1845 and Heinrich Hoffmann is looking for a present for his little son.
But aside the fairy tale books by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm there is nothing.
Only books about good behaviour and prayers. Nothing inspiring, nothing fun.
So Heinrich Hoffmann creates his own book for his son. A collection of short stories with coloured artworks.

Hoffmann's son loves the book and not only he does: Relatives, collegues and friends want Der Struwwelpeter for their children and they convince Hoffmann to print the book for a big audience.
Soon the books are sold in stores and many people read the stories and watch the artworks.

Watch them with me
I will summarize the content of each story shortly and you can watch the illustrations.
Prepare to see things our spoiled and whiny modern society might not like.

The story of bad Friedrich
Friedich is a bad boy. He tortures animals. He whips a woman.
One day he beats a dog with the whip. The dog howls in pain, but Friedrich has no mercy.
Suddenly the dog bites Friedrich's leg. So deep, that it bleeds badly.
The dog steals the whip and eats all of Friedrich's food while the bad boy must stay in bed getting bitter medicine.

The sad story with the lighter
Paulinchen and her cats are home alone and her parents forbid her to play with the lighters.
She does not want to listen and plays with the lighters . Her cats beg her to be good and stop, but it is too late. Paulinchen sets her hair on fire. Within seconds she burns alive and nothing except her shoes  and ashes remain of her. The cats cry over her death.

Soup-Kaspar

Kaspar is a healthy boy, but he refuses to eat his soup. Each day he loses weight.
He becomes thinner and thinner until he starves after five days.
A pot of soup is put on his grave.

The story of the black boys
A black boy goes for a walk, but some white boys bully him, because of his skin colour.
Big Nikolas is mad and puts them into ink. Now they stop to make fun of the black boy. They are blacker than the night. The black boy walks into the sunshine followed by those who wouldn't be punished if they would have treated the boy well.

The story of the thumb sucker
A boy sucks on his thumbs, but his mother forbids it, because otherwise a mad tailor will come and cut off the boy's thumbs.
While the mother does the groceries the boy sucks on his thumbs and suddenly the mad tailor comes, cuts off his thumbs and vanishes.

The story of the wild hunter

A hunter wants to shoot a rabbit, but the rabbit steals his glasses and the gun and then the hunter is hunted by the rabbit. The rabbit shoots at him and the hunter jumps into a well while the bullets destroy the hunter's wife's cup and hot coffee drops on the baby rabbit.

The story of the Zappel-Philipp
Philipp can not keep still. He moves and rocks on his chair until the whole dinner and tablecloth fall on the floor together with Philipp.

Hans-watch-the-sky
Hans always watches the sky. He is always distracted. One day he falls into a cold river, but he is saved. Only his bag is lost in the water.

The story of flying Robert

Robert loves the storm and he goes outside with his umbrella.
The wind blows him away and he is never seen again.

The last page

The last page shows a happy ending for all good boys and girls.
The Christkind will bring them presents at christmas.
(The Christkind is an angel, that brings all presents on christmas eve - some Germans get presents from Santa Clause, but the Christkind is more famous)

The conclusion
Are you shocked? The book is made for children between 3-6 years.
I read that book in my childhood, too.
Yes! It is still printed and sold for more than 150 years.
I saw the burning girl and I was scared of the mad tailor, because I sucked on my thumbs.
The Struwwelpeter has also been translated into many different languages. For example into English by Mark Twain (author of Tom Sawyer).

Some people consider the book as horrible while many others consider it as dark humour and fun.
Heinrich Hoffmann was a psychologist and founder of an asylum for children.
So the stories in his book can be seen as diseases of mind:
Hyperactivity, Anorexia, Pyromania, illusions.
In the 19th century most people with mental problems were locked away and treated as "insane". There was no proper therapy. Not to mention, that anorexia did not exist in past centuries, because people usually did not have enough to eat. Industrial progress with better harvests made the disease visible for the first time.
A story about racism was also unusual back then.

But no matter what people think about the Struwwelpeter, it is a famous book, that is known around the world. It scared children and it made them laugh.
And since Germans love creating and using new words  "Zappel-Philipp" and "Hans-guck-in-die-Luft" have become a part of the German language.
Someone who can not keep still is a "Zappel-Philipp".
Someone who never pays attention to the surroundings is a "Hans-guck-in-die-Luft".

That's the end of this Journal. I hope you enjoyed reading the text and watching the artworks.
I also hope, that this issue surprised you. I wanted something special for issue 50.

Thank you for your interest!

Now you can write some comments if you like.
What do you think about the book?
Did you know it already?
Would your younger self be scared or amused by reading it?
Are the stories funny or horrible?

PS: This is a special KJ. It is accessable for all patrons.