Karl Baedeker died, the "Pall Mall Gazette" described a Baedeker guidebook as being "singularly accurate", and in the English version of Jacques Offenbach's musical "La Vie parisienne" this memorable lyric rings out: "Kings and governments may err / But never Mr. Baedeker." Towards the end of his life, Baedeker told friends that he regretted not having accomplished more in his life and wondered whether his work would survive. Little did he know that the name Baedeker would one day become a synonym for a travel guide, whatever its provenance, and that Verlag Karl Baedeker, which still exists and continues to bear his
Karl Baedeker appeared in 1861 after Karl Baedeker's death. However, in 1836 he published "The Traveller's Manual of Conversations" in English, German, French and Italian. The 352-page book also contained many useful Dutch expressions and vocabulary. The manual was founded on the works of Boldoni, Mad. de Genlis and others, acknowledged on the title pages, which were in both English and German, unusual then, but he was an astute businessman and primarily a bookseller at the time. Unusually, too, the German page was on the left and the traditional title page on the right was in English. Whereas the German title page