From an aerial vantage above a vast crowd of onlookers, costumed dancers in tricorn hats, knee breeches, and full skirts trace the figures of the Historischer Schäfertanz — the Historic Shepherds' Dance — in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Bavaria, the perfectly preserved medieval walled town that became one of Germany's most photographed destinations. This real-photo–style silver gelatin card, published by Ernst Geissendörfer's Kunsthandlung (art shop) in Rothenburg, captures the dance during what appears to be the Whitsuntide festival celebrations of the 1910s or early 1920s, when the tradition was revived with great civic pride. The Schäfertanz dates to 1517, when shepherds reportedly danced in gratitude after the plague spared the town. The crowd pressing in from all sides, women in summer blouses and men in straw hats, gives the image an unstaged, documentary electricity rarely found in tourist cards of the era.