It seems Badenweiler, Germany, is the town writers go to die. Could that be used in a tourism campaign? Would it make you want to visit? It is a spa town after all, which I presume is what drew them there in the first place.

Well, I don’t know that Badenweiler is really a destination of choice for literary lions about to shuffle off this mortal coil, but at least two prominent authors have died while visiting the resort destination. Nineteenth century Russian playwright Anton Chekhov died in this spa town. I’m told he despised the place. Of course that may be because he was sick and knew he was dying, though he had been reluctant to admit it. That can really affect your usually sunny disposition. I found it to be a very pleasant town.

Badenweiler seems proud of its association with Chekhov, no matter what he thought of the place. I came across a bust of him on the pathway leading up to the castle ruins. There’s also a Chekhov museum in town but I didn’t check it out. That was partly time constraints and partly interest: I don’t remember when I last saw one if his plays performed, though I’m pretty sure it was within the past decade. Probably longer than that since I last read one of the short stories he is so famous for.

American author Stephen Crane also died in Badenweiler also, though he doesn’t merit a museum. I only know about it because it is in the town’s Wikipedia entry. For Europeans I guess Chekhov is a big deal. Not so I wouldn’t think for most North Americans, whose only exposure to the name Chekhov was a character in the original Star Trek series.

I had to read one of Crane’s works in school, The Red Badge of Courage (I must admit I don’t remember much about the book, but I haven’t read it since 1968). Pushing the Crane connection might bring the occasional American tourist to Badenweiler. Though maybe he doesn’t merit a museum (there is one in New Jersey) in German eyes.

Or maybe no-one in Badenweiler wants to do anything that, though it would increase tourist traffic, would spoil their quaint town. For example, the few tourist oriented sites I visited had signage in German only. Given that you can stand in the centre of the town and look into France in one direction and Switzerland in the other, I found it a little strange that they didn’t at least include French information on the tourist signs.

Maybe that is the spa town mindset. People are laid back and happy and don’t want/need to increase their business. So they don’t reach out to potential markets. Sometimes bigger just isn’t wanted. They are already doing well, getting bigger means more work and less free time, a lessened quality of life.

As a tourist I wished the place was a little more tourist-friendly. I suspect though that North America would be a lot healthier if we didn’t always try for bigger when the only benefit of bigger would be more money. Sometimes enough should be just that.