Do you know who the Pied Piper really was?

This is a photochrom picture of the Rattenfängerhaus (Rat-catcher's House) of Hameln (Hamelin), Germany -- also known as the Pied Piper's house -- as it appeared around 1898. The facade was built in 1602, but the rest of the house is much as it would have been in the middle ages. It is called the Pied Piper's house not because the Pied Piper lived there, but because there is a plaque on the corner of the building commemorating the loss of the children. It reads:

"ANNO 1284 AM DAGE JOHANNIS ET PAULI WAR DER 26. JUNI - DORCH EINEN PIPER MIT ALLERLEY FARVE BEKLEDET GEWESEN CXXX KINDER VERLEDET BINNEN HAMELN GEBOREN - TO CALVARIE BI DEN KOPPEN VERLOREN. "

"In the year 1284 on John and Paul's Day, the 26 of June -- 130 children born in Hamelin were seduced by a piper, dressed in all kinds of colors,and lost at the place of execution near the koppen (probably a hill)."

The street that runs alongside the Rat-catcher's House is called Bungelosenstrasse, meaning "Drumless Street," or the Street without Music. Tradition has it that no music has been played on that street since the children were led down it and away from the city by the piper.