Hameln

A window in Hameln's church, recorded before it was destroyed, showed a piper and children and carried an inscription about the loss of a hundred and thirty of the town's children on 26 June 1284; a note in the town chronicle repeats the date. The rat-catching element appears only in later versions, and what actually happened, if anything, has never been established, with emigration, illness and other explanations proposed. The Rattenfängerhaus of 1603 and other Weser Renaissance houses carry the ornate stonework of that regional style. Open-air performances of the story run on Sundays in summer, and the town uses rat imagery everywhere.

History

Hamelin began with a monastery founded as early as 851 AD, whose village became a town by the 12th century; the Pied Piper incident is said to have happened in 1284 and may rest on a real event, and in the 15th and 16th centuries the town was a minor member of the Hanseatic League. In June 1634, in the Thirty Years' War, the town was besieged by the Swedes and the imperial general Bönninghausen lost the Battle of Oldendorf. Its greatest prosperity began in 1664, when it became a fortified border town of the Principality of Calenberg, passing in 1705 to the Electorate of Hanover; four forts built between 1760 and 1806 earned it the name "Gibraltar of the North", but in 1806 it surrendered to the French without a fight and its walls and towers were pulled down, and in 1843 the townspeople built the Klütturm from the ruins of Fort George (Wikipedia, Hamelin).

What you'll find

• The Weser Renaissance houses - ornate stone and gable work of about 1600.
• The Rattenfängerhaus - a 1603 building carrying the story's inscription.
• The Sunday performances - open-air enactments of the tale in summer.
• The 1284 record - the earliest documented reference to the lost children.

When to go

May to September, when the open-air play runs on Sunday middays and a musical on Wednesdays. The town is quiet outside the season.

What to expect

The story is commercialised heavily throughout the town. What happened in 1284, if anything, is unknown. Performances are in German.

Nearby

Hann. Münden lies south up the Weser; Hanover is northeast.

Key facts