Literarisches Museum Badenweiler Tschechow-Salon

Anton Chekhov’s last days are recalled in Badenweiler’s Literaturmuseum Chekhov-Salon. The single West-European museum devoted to his life and work stands in a former town hall on Chekhov Platz. Heinz Setzer, a Chekhov scholar and the museum’s director, chose the date of its opening—15 July—to mark the anniversary of Chekhov’s death. Inside, glass cases hold letters, photographs and documents that trace the writer’s final weeks in the Black Forest resort. The displays also show how Badenweiler became a meeting place for writers such as Hermann Hesse, Konstantin Stanislavski and Stephen Crane. Temporary exhibitions add fresh material every year, including a 2018 show prepared jointly by German and Russian curators. The museum keeps the 19th-century tradition of the literary salon alive. Regular readings, discussions and performances take place in its rooms. Every summer the town hosts an International Chekhov Week and a literary festival, drawing visitors who walk the same paths Chekhov once walked.