Baedeker "baedekering" became an English-language term for the purpose of traveling in a country to write a travel guide or travelogue about it. Fritz Baedeker became the most successful travel guide publisher of all time and turned the publishing house into the most famous and reputable publisher of travel guides in the world. In 1909, Leipzig University conferred an honorary Ph.D. (a rare honour at the time) on him at its 500th anniversary convocation. This era in its history was brought to an end by the outbreak of World War I, after which the house of Baedeker went into decline, the
Baedeker Mairs publishing group, were merged and housed together in Ostfildern/Kemnat as "Karl Baedeker GmbH" with a branch in Munich. The ownership of the new venture was split down the middle between Langenscheidt and Mairs. In 1997, Mairs Geographischer Verlag, now known as , became the 100% owner of Verlag Karl Baedeker, along with all rights attached to Karl Baedeker's name and firm. The new English Baedekers produced by MairDumont dispensed with the "Allianz" logo in the title, with the German editions doing the same in 2013. This marked the beginning of a new era in the appearance and content of