Traces of settlement in the Hameln region date back to the stone age. It is not known however since when there was a village in what is today the old part of town.
Around 851 the Benedictine Monastery Hameln was founded at a suitable crossing place at the river Weser by a the "Imperial Abbey of Fulda" having received the estate from a Saxon Count who had died without heirs or successors.
Later the monastery developed into a collegiate convent. A market colony established nearby and was called "civitas" (town) for the first time around the year 1200.
Hameln became known world-wide by the exodus of the "H�melschen Kinder" (children of Hameln) in 1284 from which later on the Pied Piper�s Legend developed.
From 1426 until 1572 Hameln was a member of the "Hansa League".
In the 16th century Hameln�s rich merchants competed with the landed gentry and constructed splendid buildings in the Weser Renaissance style.
image comment: Hameln as a fortress in 1741 (click for bigger version)
Since 1664 Hameln was developed as the strongest fortress of the Hanoverian principality, finished in the end of the 18th century with the fortification of the mountain Kl�t. The fortress was therefore known as the "Gibraltar of the North".
In 1808 Napoleon I. ordered the fortress to be destroyed thus allowing the town to expand.
In 1867 Hameln became Prussian. In 1872 Hameln was connected to the railway line Hanover-Altenbeken. In addition to the traditional milling industry the first carpet weaving factory was established.
In 1968 a total restoration of the old town centre was started and completed in 1992.
In 1996, a modern conference centre "Weserbergland-Zentrum" opened.
In 1999, the island "Werder" was reshaped and developed by a pedestrian bridge.
In the year 2000 a new tourist info centre opened.
2004 until 2006
