Baedeker
From Free net encyclopedia
Verlag Karl Baedeker is a Germany-based publisher of worldwide travel guides. The guides, often referred as simply "Baedekers" (sometimes the term is used about similar works from other publishers), contain important introductions, descriptions of buildings, of museum collections, etc., written by the best specialists, and are frequently revised in order to be up to date. For the convenience of travellers, they are in a handy format and in small print.
Founded by Karl Baedeker in 1827, the company relocated in 1872 to Leipzig under his third son Fritz Baedeker, who took over control of the company following the death and disablement of his older brothers. With the widespread advent of mechanical transportation, it was Fritz who managed an explosive growth in the line of travel guides, also producing international guides.
In World War II, Germany launched a series of revenge attacks against English cities featured in the Baedeker Guide to Britain, known as the Baedeker raids.
The Baedeker company's premises and files perished in a December 1943 air raid, but Baedeker's great grandson revived it, restarting, in 1948, publication of tourist guides.
The publishing house joined with the insurance company Allianz Group in 1978, and many of the guides have been called "Baedeker Allianz Travel Guides" (Baedeker Allianz Reiseführer) since then. However, as of 2001, 64 titles in English and 24 in French do not carry the Allianz logo; English titles have been published by Prentice-Hall and Macmillan.
Collecting old Baedeker guides
Internet sites such as eBay and Abe Books regularly list old Baedeker guide books for sale. The guides of most historical and cultural interest span the period prior to WWII; describing Europe, the United States, Egypt, Canada, India and Russia in the context of the day.
Care must be taken when buying guides, with respect to their condition. It is suspected (though most of the Baedeker company's catalogue of published guides were destroyed in a bomb raid during WWII, so they are unable to confirm or deny) that a change in construction methods, with age, leads to rusting in binding staples, which rot pages, which results in the guides literally falling apart.
Rarer books (e.g. Russia, India, Egypt) regularly sell for quite significant sums.