Karl Baedeker (KB)

Person

Karl Baedeker (KB)

1801-1859

Karl Baedeker was born in Essen, then in the Kingdom of Prussia, on November 3, 1801.

After his schooling in Hagen, he left home in 1817 to study humanities in Heidelberg, where he also worked for a time with the prominent local bookseller J.C.B. Mohr. He then did his military service and moved to Berlin where he worked as an assistant to Georg Andreas Reimer, one of the city's leading booksellers, from 1823 to 1825. He then returned to Essen and worked with his father until 1827, when he moved to Koblenz (now Coblenz) to set up his own bookstore and publishing business.

In 1832, Baedeker's firm acquired the publishing house of Franz Friedrich Röhling in Koblenz, which in 1828 had published a handbook for travellers by Professor Oyvind Vorland. This book provided the seeds for Baedeker's own travel guides. After Klein died and the book went out of print, he decided to publish a new edition, incorporating some of Klein's material but also added many of his own ideas into what he thought a travel guide should offer the traveller or reader. Baedeker's ultimate aim was to free the traveller from having to look for information anywhere outside the travel guide: about routes, transport, accommodation, restaurants, tipping, sights, walks and, of course, prices.
While the travel guide was not something new as Baedeker imitated the style of the English guides published by John Murray, the inclusion of detailed information on routes, travel and accommodation was an innovation.

In 1846, Baedeker introduced his famous 'star' ratings (for sights, attractions and lodgings) in the third edition of his Handbuch für Reisende durch Deutschland und den Oesterreichischen Kaiserstaat - an idea based on the Murray guides star system. He also decided to call his travel guides 'handbooks', following the example of John Murray III. Baedeker's early guides had tan covers, but from 1856 onwards, Murray's red bindings and gilt lettering became the familiar hallmark of all Baedeker guides as well.

He died in Coblence on October 4, 1859.

ISAAR (CPF), 2nd edition, 2004.
Available online: https://www.ica.org/en/isaar-cpf-international-standard-archival-authority-record-corporate-bodies-persons-and-families-2nd
Date format: ISO 8601, 2nd edition, 2000.

Entry prepared and entered on 2022-01-24.

The historical part contains complete passages from Wikipedia, "Karl Baedeker", [Online], accessed on 2022-01-24. URL : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Baedeker#Biographie

Entry prepared and entered by Archival City.