Baedeker

• 1. Founding And Early Innovation

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  On the 1st of July 1827, Karl Baedeker opened a bookselling and publishing business in Coblence. He was the eldest of ten children born to Gottschalk Diederich Bädeker. The family had run a printing house since 1750 under Zacharias Gerhard Bädeker. Karl changed the spelling of his surname from Bädeker to Baedeker around 1850. In 1832, his firm acquired the publishing house of Franz Friedrich Röhling. That house had published a handbook for travellers by Professor Oyvind Vorland in 1828. Baedeker decided to publish a new edition after Johann August Klein died in 1831. He incorporated some of Klein's material but added many of his own ideas. His goal was to free the traveller from having to look for information anywhere outside the travel guide. He included details about routes, transport, accommodation, restaurants, tipping, sights, walks and prices. While other publishers like John Murray existed, Baedeker innovated by including detailed route and accommodation information.

• 2. The Golden Age Of Fritz Baedeker

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  Fritz Baedeker joined the firm as a partner in 1869 and became general manager. He moved the company headquarters from Koblenz to Leipzig in 1872. This move placed them near major German publishing houses. He persuaded Eduard Wagner to establish a new cartography company named Wagner and Debes. Herbert Warren Wind wrote that the Baedeker maps were a feast for the eye. Michael Wild called them a visual delight. The expansion was fast and furious during this period. New editions were printed by several Leipzig printers while older guides continued production in Essen. Fritz ventured into territory none of his predecessors had covered before. He published guides on Russia, Sweden, Norway, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Greece, the Mediterranean, United States, Canada, India and South East Asia. Plans to publish guides on China and Japan had to be abandoned when war broke out in 1914. During his reign which lasted over 50 years, Fritz produced 73 new Baedekers. The travel guides became so popular that baedekering became an English-language term for writing about travel. In 1909, Leipzig University conferred an honorary Ph.D. on him at its 500th anniversary convocation.

• 3. War, Decline, And The Leipzig Bombing

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  Hans Baedeker took charge of the company in difficult times after his father died in 1925. The firm had lost heavily by investing in government bonds during World War I. Rising inflation played a part in affecting tourism and the balance sheet. The Great Depression put paid to any hopes of an early recovery. The arrival of Nazism made things even worse for anything connected with tourism. On the 4th of December 1943, Britain's Royal Air Force bombarded the city of Leipzig. This event destroyed their headquarters with total loss of the firm's archives. Hans received a loan from Allen & Unwin to continue operations. He celebrated the centenary of the foundation on the 1st of July 1927, holding a reception at the Leipzig Harmonie venue. The firm managed to produce twelve new titles in German and five in English. Several were commissioned by the Nazis who vetted the guides and proposed changes. A guidebook for the German Army of Occupation in Poland contained history written as the Nazis wished it to be written. In 1948, the Leipzig guide was the first post-World War II Baedeker published in that city. It was also the last one to appear there before the Russians confiscated remaining copies.

• 4. Post-War Revival And Relocation

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  Karl Friedrich Baedeker revived the family publishing business under the name of Karl Baedeker in 1948. He moved to Malente-Gremsmühlen in Schleswig-Holstein where his wife and sister lived. His uncle Hans had decided to stay on in Leipzig which was now under Russian jurisdiction. Even before the outbreak of war, Hans used to tell him about the importance of keeping the brand alive. In December 1949, he published his first offering: 10,000 copies of Schleswig-Holstein. This was printed in Glückstadt near Hamburg and contained some advertising to balance the books. Allen & Unwin once again helped with another loan. In 1951, Karl Friedrich and Oskar Steinheil signed an agreement with Shell AG and Kurt Mair to produce a series of motoring guides. The Stuttgart operation became known as Baedekers Shell Guides. These slim guides were designed to fit into a man's jacket pocket or in the glove compartment of a car. The first ones covered Germany and were a huge success. Guides on other European countries followed in both German and English. In 1956, Karl Friedrich moved his field of operations from Malente to Freiburg im Breisgau.

• 5. Modern Ownership And Brand Evolution

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  Florian Baedeker succeeded his father when he died in 1979. He completed his studies in Munich in 1971 and devoted himself to book publishing matters. Florian also carried out most of the work involved in preparing city guides titled Baden-Baden, Constance, Strasbourg and Wiesbaden. He published Basel in 1978 which is considered by many to be one of his best city guides. A keen parachute jumper, he was killed in a parachuting accident on the 26th of October 1980. His mother Eva Baedeker piloted the firm until she died in 1984. She negotiated the sale of the Freiburg branch to Langenscheidt before her death. Since 1979, Baedeker travel guides have appeared as travel guides published in collaboration with Allianz. Over 150 guides have been published already and the list keeps growing. In 1997, MairDumont became the 100% owner of Verlag Karl Baedeker along with all rights attached to the name. The new English Baedekers produced by MairDumont dispensed with the Allianz logo in the title. These new guides were the first such guidebooks to incorporate infographics.