The
German name of the
pied piper is "
der Rattenfänger". The trick is that "Ratten" has two meanings : besides being the standard German for
rats, it is a popular word for "
kids".
Note that this lexical
ambiguity between the many meanings of the word "Rats" was also the root of a famous case of severe
mental disorder which was analyzed (and healed) by
Sigmund Freud :
Ernst Lanzer,
the Rat Man.