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150th anniversary

4 Oct 2009

Karl Baedeker, the founder of the publishing house to whose products this site is dedicated, died 150 years ago today, not yet 58 years old. It is said that the cause of death was heart failure brought on by overwork. Certainly, by 1859, his decision some 20 years earlier to focus his publishing activities on travel guides had brought the irresistible force of his attention to detail and refusal to rely on anything other than first-hand witness into abrupt contact with the immovable object of the size of the world. As the development of railways across the European continent made tourism in a modern sense possible in more and more territories, the demand for truthful travel guides blossomed beyond the fulfilling capacity of a single person.

Fortunately, Karl had three sons who would pick up where he had left off, and the ability of the family to expand on the work of the founder is another remarkable ingredient in the story of the Baedeker success. But none of that would have happened without the drive and, perhaps, vision of the man whose death we remember today.

I often wonder whether developments such as a great travel guide publishing house are the result of a specific vision, or if they just come about because of a happy accidental combination of an idea, a market and some very hard work. Nobody can, in any event, doubt the hard work, nor the inpsired idea that Karl Baedeker provided. Interestingly, there is no recent biography dedicated to Karl Baedeker (that I can find - but would be glad to be put right on this point). So there is plenty more work for the Baedeker research to be getting on with.

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