The Real Pied Piper from Hamelin Walked Around Podomí!

Podomí, 26 April 2025 — For a weekend, the surroundings of Podomí turned into a place where medieval legends came back to life. As part of the project “In the Footsteps of the Pied Piper: Czech-German Cultural Bridges between Podomí and Hameln”, supported by the Czech-German Future Fund, representatives of Základní a mateřská škola Podomí^{^[1]}, KGS Salzhemmendorf – Die Schule mit Ausblick^{^[2]}, the municipalities of Podomí and Jedovnice, as well as the local associations Barvínek and Restart, came together.

The greatest attention was drawn by the German guest Michael Boyer^{^[3]}, known as the “Pied Piper of Hameln”, who brought the ancient legend to life in costume. “The legend of the Pied Piper is extremely important to us not only as historical heritage but also as an opportunity to connect regional history with the European cultural space,” said Marie Horáková from the Barvínek association.

The programme included youth theatre performances in the theme of the Piper, school workshops, and also expeditions to the Pied Piper sculptures^[4] in Podomí, newly also unveiled in Ruprechtov, near the vanished village of Hamlíkov^[5]. The newest sculpture was installed by local woodcarver and history teacher Vladimír Švarc especially for the occasion of the German delegation’s visit. Michael Boyer personally documented both sculptures for the global database^{^[6]} of Pied Piper monuments.

Teachers had the opportunity to draw inspiration from different approaches to education. “We greatly appreciate the connection between outdoor education and history. The school in Podomí is very inspiring for us, showing how children can be taught to understand historical contexts based on real places and stories through fieldwork,” said Florian Scheuer from the German school KGS Salzhemmendorf.

“For us, it was truly inspiring to see how creatively and diversely a single theme can be explored with students. The German school has extensive experience with modern forms of interpretation – from podcasts to multimedia projects and even comics. We would be happy to adapt some of these ideas into our own teaching environment,” said Petr Horák from the Primary and Nursery School Podomí.

The meeting concluded with a working discussion on possibilities for further cooperation. As Michal Boyer emphasized: “Community involvement is key to success. The Pied Piper is omnipresent in Hameln – Podomí and Jedovnice can profit from this magical tale as well. In Hameln, everything originally grew out of community involvement supported by commerce and city government. Over a hundred years, a very complex and well-thought-out system connecting these local services developed^{^[7]}, aiming to retain as much of the tourist revenue as possible within the region.”

“We see great potential in this,” added Marie Horáková. “The Pied Piper is a world-famous legend, and here we look at it simply from the other end – what happened to the children after they arrived in the new land. We just have to find the courage to strategically build tourism products around this story.”