«Gruss aus Hameln», greetings from Hameln: the “pied piper” in a 1902 cromolitograph postcard of Hameln, a German town of the Lower-Saxony well known for the legend about a rat–catcher hired by the city council to lure rats away with his magic pipe. The lyrics on the left are from the aria Wandern, ach Wandern from the operetta Der Rattenfänger von Hameln (the Rat-Catcher of Hameln) by German–American composer and musician Adolf Neuendorff:
«Wandern, ach Wandern weit in die Fern / Wandern, ach Wandern tu ich so gern,
Rastlos durcheilen Täler und Höhn. / Welt, ach so weit, wie bist du so schön! …»
The Latin writing «Anno MCCLXXXIV AM DAGE JOHANNI ET PAULI» (on the right) quotes an inscription on a building in Hameln (the Rattenfängerhaus, meaning “rat–catcher’s house”), wich states that the facts of the tale would be take places in 1284.
(Commons)
