Since its publication in 1845, this classic children's book has enchanted generations of children with its quaint art, timeless morals, and sense of inevitable doom. Small wonder there are many references to Struwwelpeter in other media.
Film - Live Action
- In Werner Herzog's Based on a True Story war film Rescue Dawn, the German-born USN aviator Dietrich Dengler
has Flying Robert and his umbrella painted on the side of his plane.
Literature
- In Hogfather (and the TV adaptation), one of the childhood fears that attack the invaders of the Tooth Fairy's castle is a Scissorman, depicted here as an outright Eldritch Abomination made entirely of blades.
Live-Action TV
- The Doctor reads the book to a bunch of street urchins in Doctor Who's Thin Ice. The kids just think the stories are fun.
- In an episode of The Office (US), 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."
- An episode of Van der Valk, a long-running British crime drama, features a Serial Killer 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.
Tabletop Games
- Ravenloft has the Scissorman make a cameo in Dark Tales and Disturbing Legends, as the most powerful of the statted bogeymen. As with all things Ravenloft, it's played for horror.Finally, his mother tells him: "Peter, beware: the great tall tailor always comes to naughty boys who suck their thumbs..."
Video Games
- Lost Cartridge - Cold Read: The "Little Suck-a-Thumb" story can be found in the library, and reading it gives Mitch a pair of scissors as an item.
Western Animation
- Family Guy: A scene in "Business Guy" has Peter snap at Lois that she's "a bigger downer than a German bedtime story!" Cue a cutaway to a ten-second adaptation of the "Story of the Suck-a-Thumb" from Struwwelpeter, narrated by a voice with a very German accent. (The cutaway scene misrepresents the original by letting the mother cut off the boy's thumbs (in the original, they are cut off by "the tailor") and omits that the original is told in verse.)"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."
