Baedeker

Verlag Karl Baedeker is a Germany-based publisher and pioneer in the business of worldwide travel guides. The guides, often referred as simply "Baedekers" (sometimes the term is used about similar works from other publishers, or in reference to any kind of guide), 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.

History

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. Prior to World War I, Baedeker's guides were famous enough that "baedekering" became an English language verb for the process of travelling a country for the purpose of writing a travel guide or travelogue about it.

World War II

During 1942, Germany launched a series of air attacks against English cities of historical importance featured in the Baedeker Guide to Great Britain. These "Baedeker raids" were carried out as revenge for Royal Air Force bombing attacks against German cities, including Berlin.

During the years of World War II, the Nazi government commissioned publication of several travel guides of occupied regions of Europe. Among these were travel guides of Generalgouvernement (General Government, part of occupied Poland and Ukraine), and the Alsace region of occupied France annexed by the German Reich.

The Baedeker company's premises and files perished in a December 1943 air raid, but Baedeker's great grandson revived the company, restarting publication of tourist guides in 1948.

Post-World War II

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; Prentice Hall and Macmillan have published the English titles.

Influence

For 40 years (1878-1918) the Scottish brothers James and Findlay Muirhead published the English-language "Baedeker"s. In 1918, they established the ongoing "Blue Guides" as heir to the great 19th century "Baedeker" tradition.

Purchasing a Baedeker

Internet sites such as eBay and Abe Books regularly list old Baedeker guidebooks for sale. The guides of most historical and cultural interest span the period prior to World War II; 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 World War II, 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. Guides printed post-1920 are most likely to have been stapled.

Rarer books (e.g. Russia, India, Egypt, Palestine & Syria) regularly sell for quite significant sums.

Baedeker in popular culture

A Baedeker is mentioned in book and film "A Room with a View"; it is the guide Lucy Honeychurch reaches for when she is lost in Santa Croce. It is also referenced heavily in the book, and in "Where Angels Fear to Tread" by the same author, E. M. Forster.

In a passage of the novel "V." set in Egypt, Thomas Pynchon frequently refers to Baedeker.

T. S. Eliot wrote a poem entitled "Burbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a Cigar."

Mina Loy's first book of poetry is titled "Lunar Baedecker" (1923). Robert McAlmon's Contact Editions press misspelled the title.

Philip Pullman's "Lyra's Oxford" includes excerpts from a fictional "Baedeker's guide" to Lyra's Oxford.

Helen Coale Crew wrote a short story titled "The Baedeker Boy" (illustrated by Matilda Breuer) in Volume 9 of "The Children's Hour; From Many Lands" (1953).

External links

* [http://www.baedeker.com Baedeker]
* [http://www.allianz.com/azcom/dp/cda/0,,21576-44,00.html Explanation of Allianz partnership]
* [http://www.bdkr.com bdkr.com - a resource for collectors]