Ernst Baedeker

Ernst Baedeker (born October 26, 1833 in Koblenz ; † July 23, 1861 there ) was a German publisher. He continued the publishing house founded by his father with the Baedeker travel guide .

Life

Ernst Baedeker studied at the Ruprecht-Karls-University . There he became a member of the Corps Saxo-Borussia Heidelberg in 1855 . Among his consemesters he was the only one who had his parental home in the Rhineland and not in East Elbe , and almost the only one who did not own a manor . In addition, he grew up in a family home that opened up not only to national, but also to liberal and free-thinking ideas. His father Karl Baedeker , and probably his son with him, was friends with Hoffmann von Fallersleben and knew Ernst Moritz Arndt .

In July 1856 he was active as the last Comitat in Heidelberg university history: three members of the Heidelberg Senior Citizens' Convention were expelled from the university; among them was the vandal Robert Lucius . They were accompanied by the SC to the Hessian border in Ladenburg . This led to the occupation of Heidelberg by soldier companies called by the Vice Rector and to the SC's falling out with the city of Ladenburg. Ladenburg was not at all amused when the SC let the local council know in 1964 that the city's disrepute had now been lifted - shortly before the Heidelberg Baedeker appeared in 1968.

Ernst Baedeker had prepared himself for his job at the publishing house through an apprenticeship as a bookseller at the Braunschweig Vieweg Verlag , in Leipzig and Stuttgart and at Williams & Norgate in London; but he was only able to implement it for three years. He became a partner in the Karl Baedeker publishing house at the beginning of 1859, the owner ten months later after his father's death. “The gifted young man” died of typhoid at the age of only 27 . His younger brother Karl Baedeker junior became his successor in the management of the publishing house, and in 1869 the youngest brother Fritz Baedeker also became a partner. The publishing house was relocated to Leipzig in 1872 and the international breakthrough was achieved. Under Fritz, sole owner from 1878, the medium-sized family publisher reached its greatest boom around 1900.

Ernst Baedeker married Ottilie Wilhelmine Hirzel (1838–1908), daughter of the publisher Salomon Hirzel , on May 22, 1859 in Koblenz . He is buried next to his father in the main cemetery in Koblenz .

editor

In his first and only full business year as a publisher in 1860, Ernst Baedeker offered seven revisions. In 1861 the first editions of the Italy and Romband (new editions until 1944) and French editions of the guides to Austria (1860–1936), Holland and Belgium (1859–1928) and again Italy (1861–1932) appeared.

His brothers Karl Baedeker jun. and later Fritz continued his work, initially with the first edition of the London Guide in time for the World's Fair. Ernst had largely completed the volume before his death. The popular journal Die Gartenlaube described Karl and Ernst Baedeker in 1861 as "the travelers' loyal Eckardt". Ernst Baedeker published the first English-language volume at the beginning of July 1861, two weeks before his death. In this way, not only his father deserves the honor, but also to him that a name separated from the person and became a term for the cause. In 1983, Laurence Boyle wrote in the communications for Baedeker friends about Ernst that he was “probably the least known, but the most important descendant” of Karl Baedeker: “Millions of English and American travelers should be grateful to him for making the Baedeker world accessible to them made. "

literature

• L. Laurence Boyle: The second owner of the Karl Baedeker company . In: Mitteilungen für Baedeker-Freunde Heft 5, 1983, pp. 5-8 ( online ).
• Alex W. Hinrichsen: Baedeker's Travel Guides 1832–1990. Bibliography 1832-1944; Listing 1948-1990. History of the publishing house . 2nd Edition. 2008, pp. 29-30 ( digitized version ).

Remarks

1. ↑ Kösener Corps lists 1910 120/486
2. ↑ Robert von Lucius (Ed.): White-Green-Black-White. Contributions to the history of the Corps Saxo-Borussia in Heidelberg. Volume 2: 1934-2008. Heidelberg 2008, p. 65