Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
German, name of a character in the children's book by Heinrich Hoffman (1809-1894). There was an English edition by 1848.
Wikipedia
Der Struwwelpeter (1845) (or Shockheaded Peter) is a German children's book by Heinrich Hoffmann. It comprises ten illustrated and rhymed stories, mostly about children. Each has a clear moral that demonstrates the disastrous consequences of misbehavior in an exaggerated way. The title of the first story provides the title of the whole book.
Usage examples of "struwwelpeter".
For those unfamiliar with Struwwelpeter (I will assume everyone recognizes the beloved and equally iconic figure of Joey, dead this Easter at the age of forty-nine), he is the quintessential and terrifying, monstrous Bad Boy, frozen for all time at the front of the classroom while the teacher -- Auden's "terrible rector," perhaps ?
First published in Germany in 1845, Der Struwwelpeter was written by Dr.
What he doesn't stress enough is the power that Struwwelpeter and other disturbing books possess to help children to seize some of that anarchic power for themselves and, one hopes, channel it creatively.
There is a remarkable anecdote in Marina Warner's No Go the Bogeyman, in which she recounts finding a copy of Struwwelpeter that had been "vigorously defaced"
But in the flesh he resembled a genetic pile-up between Struwwelpeter and Uriah Heep.