Dr. Heinrich Hoffman, a physician and writer, was first credited with describing children with ADHD. A psychiatrist and writer of books on medicine and psychiatry, he later established an asylum in Frankfurt, Germany. At the time of the mid-19th century, few children's books were in existence. He could find none that were suitable for reading to his 4-year-old son, Carl Philipp, so he decided to write and illustrate a book of poems for him.

The book Der Struwwelpeter is a series of ten stories or poems that describe children who are not behaving; each one has a moral and an unhappy ending as a result of the behavior. Two of the stories, Zappelphilip or ''Fidgety Phillip'' and Hans-Guck-in-die-Luft or ''John-Look-in-the Air'' are strongly believed to describe persons with ADD. The drawings impressively depict the behavior of a child that today would be diagnosed as ADHD. Medical historians point to the fact that ADHD has been around for a long time and is not a creation of modern times. In fact, ADD in Germany is often called the ''Zappelphilip-Syndrom.''

These stories written in 1845 are somewhat notorious for perceived brutal treatment of erring children. In Zappelphilip, in spite of his parents' pleas to be a little gentleman, Fidgety Phillip simply would not sit still at dinner table. He wiggled and giggled and tilted his chair back like a rocking horse. He became wilder by the minute, when suddenly his chair slipped out from under him. He grabbed the tablecloth, pulling the dishes and food all over on top of him. At the end of the poem, poor Mama and Papa wonder what they will do for dinner.

John-Look-in-the Air is the story of a boy who is so inattentive and not paying attention that he walks into the river. He is soon rescued but loses all his belongings. Hoffman's Der Struwwelpeter has become a popular German children's book and is a classic of children's literature. The tales have been dramatized and have been sellouts at various literary festivals. A museum is dedicated to Der Struwwelpeter in Frankfurt.

Bibliography:

Thome, Johannes, and Kerrin Jacobs. 2004. Attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) in a 19th century children's book. European Psychiatry 19(5 August):303-6.

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