Was There a Real Pied Piper of Hamelin?

Most of you may remember hearing the story of how the Pied Piper of Hamelin first got rid of all the rats in a certain German village and then came back and took all the children as revenge for the city leaders not coming through on their part of the deal to pay him for his services. Apparently, city leaders haven’t changed much since medieval times. The Pied Piper of Hamelin sounds like something that may have been concocted by those infamous grisly Brothers named Grimm and, indeed, much of what has been passed on about this angry piper comes to us through the brothers so forgettably (as usual) played by Matt Damon and so memorably assayed by the late Heath Ledger in the otherwise vomitatious movie titled The Brothers Grimm. (A quite grim film it is, indeed, aside from Ledger’s performance.)

In fact, unlike most of their horrific fairy tales, the Brothers Grimm tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin may very well be based in stark factual terms. Their biggest fictional contribution to the story of the piper was that whole thing about first getting rid of the rats. The historical basis of the Pied Piper is focused on the disappearance of children from the village of Hameln. That historical basis is founded up stories told of a stained glass window found in a church in Hameln upon which were written these words:

In the year 1284, on the day of John and Paul, it was the 26th of June, came a colorful Piper to Hamelin and led 130 children way.

That stained glass window in that Hameln church has been lost to history, perhaps forever, but there exists another clue to the idea that the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin may have more than just a nugget of authenticity to it. Beginning in 1351 Hameln’s book of statutes started dating all proclamations from “the years after our children left.” And yet another indication of the veracity of the claims toward a real life Pied Piper can be found in the manuscript dated 1450 that tells the story of a strange man who appeared in the town and who began playing a silver flute.”

The most interesting part of the mystery may be that the Pied Piper was eventually cast as a villain when in fact his actions served to save the children. The Brothers Grimm included the rat aspect to their tale because the story was a medieval legend that took place during the Black Plague. One theory is that the legend of the Pied Piper taking the children away from Hameln was due to his protecting the children from the effects of the plague. It has been suggested that the piper took the 130 children away from Hameln to Brandenburg. Research later discovered an inordinate number of families in Brandenburg who shared dynastic family names with those in Hameln. It is therefore quite possible, just possible, that that stained glass window commemorating the exact date that the children were taken from Hameln is not an indictment of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, but rather was a tribute.