Karl Baedeker - Biography

Biography

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 while at the leading local bookseller J.C.B. Mohr. Military service followed, after which he moved to Berlin where he worked as an assistant at Georg Andreas Reimer, one of the leading booksellers in the city, from 1823 to 1825. He then returned home to Essen and worked with his father until 1827 when he left for Coblence (now Koblenz) to start his own bookselling and publishing business. He was still only 25. Essen was then a small town with about 4000 inhabitants and he felt that Koblenz, which was not only larger, but was also the capital of the Prussian province of the Rhine and a hub for tourism, had far more to offer.

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 Johannes August Klein entitled Rheinreise von Mainz bis Cöln; ein Handbuch für Schnellreisende (A Rhine journey from Mainz to Cologne; a hanbook for travellers on the move). This book provided the seeds for Baedeker's own travel guides. Baedeker reissued the book. However, 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, food, sites, walks and, of course, prices. In short, the lot.

While the travel guide was not something new (Baedeker emulated the style of English guide books published by John Murray), the inclusion of detailed information on routes, travel and accommodation was an innovation.

Baedeker was always generous in acknowledging the part John Murray III had played in nurturing his outlook on the future development of his guides. As a bookseller in Koblenz, he had often seen tourists enter his bookshop, either carrying a red Murray guide or looking for one. At the time, John Murray III was the leader in the field, but Baedeker was about to change that. He is often referred to as the 'father of modern tourism'.

In 1846, Baedeker introduced his famous 'star' ratings (for sites, 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. The Murray guides were red. Baedeker's early guides had tan covers, but in 1854 he adopted the Murray colours. The red bindings and gilt lettering became the familiar hallmark of Baedeker's guides, and the content became famous for its clarity, detail and accuracy.