O du lieber Augustin

In 1679, Vienna was struck by the Great Plague and Augustin was a ballad singer and bagpiper, who toured the city's inns entertaining people.

According to legend,[citation needed] once he was drunk and on his way home he fell in the gutter and went to sleep.

They picked him up and threw him, along with his bagpipes which they presumed were infected, into a pit filled with bodies of plague victims outside the city walls.

Luckily he remained healthy despite having slept with the infected dead bodies and Augustin became a symbol of hope for Viennese people.

Even that rich town Vienna, Broke is it like Augustin; Shed tears with me with thoughts akin, All is lost!

Johann Nepomuk Hummel wrote S 47, WoO 2 – Variations for orchestra on "O du lieber Augustin" in C major.

In Estonia there is a whole family of stereotypical melodies, probably originated from the Estonian bagpipe-tunes of the 17th century at the latest.

The kinship of the Estonian bagpipe dance tunes with the Augustin melody is clear, although verification of origin, in one way or another, is impossible due to the lack of written material.

It was widely used and parodied in cartoons from the early 20th century, and is the melody of the children's folk song, "Hail to the Bus Driver".

It appears at the end of the song "Spinning Wheel", written by David Clayton-Thomas and performed by Blood, Sweat & Tears.

The melody is also used in "Daar wordt aan de deur geklopt", a Dutch children's song for the celebration of Saint Nicholas Day.