Guidebooks played a major role behind the way how people explored the world back in the 19th Century. During those days, there was no internet to help and guide the travelers. Due to the same reason, the travelers had to rely on traditional methods to find their way to the destinations. This contributed a lot towards the popularity of guidebooks.
What could guidebooks provide to the travelers?
The guidebooks were capable of providing almost all the information that travelers wanted to know when they were conquering new cities and countries. On top of that, it is even possible for the travelers to figure out the historical sites that are located in the destinations, which provided them with information on how to get the maximum out of their travel adventures. There are numerous travel guides that were published in history as well. Out of those travel guides, the Baedekers Guidebooks hold a prominent place.
There were only two different leading publishing houses, which were publishing travel guides. These two publishing houses were owned by Karl Baedeker and John Murray. The Baedekers Guidebooks were the books that were published from the publishing house of Karl Baedeker. He could publish numerous travel guides, which were targeting different parts of the world. These travel guidebooks became so popular, where the world Baedekers became a synonym to go along with the word guidebook. In fact, it could become a trademark back in the day.
Why were Baedekers Guidebooks so popular?
Shapero.com told us that there were numerous reasons that contributed towards the popularity of Baedekers Guidebooks back in the day. The level of information that these guidebooks could deliver hold a prominent place out of them. In fact, people could easily get their hands on lots of valuable facts by referring to the guidebooks. Upon gathering information from these guidebooks, they didn’t have to look at any other guidebook. That’s because all information that the travelers needed were promptly offered by the guidebooks.
When you take a look at the guidebooks, you will figure out how they are offering lots of useful information under carefully designed topics. They include information with related to beer gardens, coffee houses, passport, requirements, lodging information, and fairs. On top of that, the travelers could use this as an effective method to figure out the notable sites that were available as well. On top of that, it was possible for them to get hold of dictionaries and maps, which were quite helpful.
The detailed notes that were available along with the travel guides could help the travelers to figure out all information that they wanted to know about a problem. They didn’t have to rely on any other documents as well because the travel guides were so detailed.
Baedekers Guidebooks are influencing the guidebooks that we can see out there in the world as of now. For example, the travel guides such as Lonely Planet and Fodor are heavily impacted by these. It is something that you should understand when you are trying to learn more about the history of Baedekers Guidebooks.
Role played by Baedekers Guidebooks in history
Along with the rise of Baedekers Guidebooks, we could see how the history of travel was taken into a whole new dimension. In other words, it could open up numerous great opportunities for the people. It all happened when the book publisher Karl Baedeker went ahead and published his very first book. This book was published under the title “Travels along the Rhine from Mainz to Cologne”. It was published back in the year 1832, along with the information that he could gather from one of the existing guides. In fact, he could buy this guide from one of the bankrupt publishing houses. Upon refining the vision, he was able to put all those ideas and go ahead with developing an effective guidebook. Due to the same reason, he is also known as the father of modern tourism.
Karl was able to combine the travel books along with a best-selling formula. This could create a reliable guide, which encouraged the people who lived in Europe to go ahead and travel independently. They didn’t have to pay for the paid guides and servants to go ahead with their travel adventures.
Some of the methods that Karl Baedeker used to make the travel books popular are even applicable today. For example, he continued to do heavy research about the destinations on his own. Then he started converting those experiences into books. These books based on personal experiences were in a position to deliver lots of useful and valuable information to the people.
The popularity of Baedekers Guidebooks eventually started growing all around the world. That’s because these guidebooks covered different countries, such as Britain and France. On top of that, Karl was able to translate the books and publish them under different languages as well.
Popularity of Baedekers Guidebooks after 1900s
Along with the death of Karl, the ownership of it was passed over to his son, Fritz Baedekers. In the meantime, Murray Handbooks was sold off. Due to the same reason, Baedekers Guidebooks could establish a monopoly within the industry. By taking maximum out of available opportunities, Baedekers Guidebooks could publish a total number of 233 travel guides in between 1900 and 1914. These guidebooks covered 40 different countries out there in the world as well.
All these books contributed a lot towards the way how people could travel back in history. Therefore, it is worthy to deep dive and explore how these books could change the lives of people back in history as well. The best method available for you to do that would be to purchase one of the Baedekers Guidebooks. If you can afford, you will be able to take a look at the antiquarian booksellers, where the Baedekers Guidebooks are available for sale. You just need to go ahead and buy one of them.
