Karl Baedeker name, would, in its heyday which lay ahead, become the premier and most successful travel guide publishing house in the world. Karl Baedeker died in Koblenz on October 4, 1859. He was only 57. In The New Yorker profile of the "House of Baedeker" Herbert Warren Wind wrote: "For years, he had attempted to do the work of several men, preparing the new guidebooks single-handedly and periodically revising the older ones. At length, his sturdy physical endowment had worn out under the strain." Michael Wild wrote in his article mentioned earlier: "It is a moot point whether he invented tourism
Karl Baedeker from Bädeker with the umlaut to Baedeker around 1850. 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