Baedeker to have three of his four sons − Hans, Ernst and Dietrich − beside him in the firm, as editors and writers. Karl Baedeker III, the fourth son, entered academia and rose to become a professor of physics at the University of Jena. He was killed in action at the Battle of Liège in August 1914. It was his son Karl Friedrich who revived Verlag Karl Baedeker after the Second World War. During his reign, which lasted over 50 years, Fritz produced 73 new "Baedekers", as they came to be known universally. The Baedeker travel guides became so popular that
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