Baedeker, Karl

views updated May 29 2018

Baedeker, Karl (1801–59), German publisher, who in 1827 started his own publishing firm in Koblenz. He is remembered chiefly for the series of guidebooks to which he gave his name and which are still published today.
In the Second World War, the name Baedeker raids was given to raids carried out by the Luftwaffe in April and May 1942 on places of cultural and historical importance in Britain.