Meyers Reisebücher
Meyers travel books published from 1862 to 1936 in the Bibliographical Institute and were up to the First World War, in addition to the published by Verlag Karl Baedeker " Baedekers " the highest quality and most popular issued in German language speaking tour guides. Similar to the great encyclopedias, in which Meyers competed with Brockhaus encyclopedia, led the fruitful competition both after moving the Bibliographic Institute Leipzig (1874 ) and geographically closely adjacent publishers to fruition this literary genre, which was hardly ever reached again.
1862-1878
Since 1862 published in the Bibliographical Institute Guidebooks European countries and regions, the opposite Baedeker travel guides were characterized by a larger size and a very extensive features with maps, plans, views and pictures. Starting with the "recent Guidebook for Switzerland" (1862 ) by H. Berlepsch was actually extends the range steadily and in 1878 comprised the following volumes:
- Northern Germany, Western part
- Northern Germany, Eastern part
- Berlin
- Thuringia
- Rheinlande
- Southern Germany
- German Alps, Western part
- German Alps, Eastern part
- London, England, Scotland and Ireland
- Paris and Northern France
- South of France
- Switzerland
- Suisse ( in French)
- Vienna
- Northern Italy ( in two volumes )
- Rome and Central Italy ( in two volumes )
- Southern Italy ( in two volumes )
In addition, some small-scale "guide" appeared with significantly less features:
- Thuringia
- Resin
- Giant Mountains
- Switzerland
- Italy in 50 days
1879-1914
After it had been shown that Meyers travel books in their present form - probably mainly due to the considerably higher price - could not compete with Baedeker travel guides, the series was umprofiliert. The large-format books were gradually replaced by small-format volumes; after 1898 appeared only "Rome and the Campagna " in large format. In pictures was largely dispensed with. However, the series was more extensive; noteworthy are the published since 1881 "Orient - leader" and for the first time in 1907 published " World Travel Guide ".
In 1914 the series included the following volumes:
- North Sea resorts and cities of the North Sea coast
- Seaside resorts and towns of the Baltic Sea coast
- Rheinlande
- Resin ( Large and Small Edition)
- Thuringia and Franconia Forest ( Big and Small Edition)
- Dresden, Saxon Switzerland
- Ore
- Giant Mountains
- Franconia and Nuremberg
- Bavarian and Bohemian Forest
- Black forest
- Upper Bavaria and Munich
- German Alps ( First to Third Part )
- The high tourist in the Eastern Alps ( in three volumes, by Ludwig Purtscheller and Henry Hess )
- Norway, Sweden and Denmark
- Paris and northern France
- Riviera, South of France, Corsica, Algeria and Tunis
- Switzerland
- Austria - Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Italy in 60 days
- Northern Italy and Central Italy ( up to the gates of Rome )
- Rome and the Campagna
- Italy and Sicily
- The Mediterranean Sea and its coastal cities, Madeira and Canary Islands
- Egypt and Sudan
- Palestine and Syria
- Greece and Asia Minor
- Balkans and Constantinople Opel
- Trip around the world (Part 1: India, China and Japan; Part 2: United States of America)
1915-1936
The triggered by the First World War, the collapse of the tourism industry also had a massive impact on the publishing activities of the Bibliographical Institute. By 1920, only a few new editions appeared, and then focused on the publication of German regional travel guide. It was only from 1930 onwards are at all significant new releases recorded, but acted it are mostly thin, sparingly equipped ribbons for individual areas. With the 4th edition of the Erzgebirge- leader in 1936, the publication of Meyer's travel books has been set.