Verkehrsdrehscheibe Schweiz und unser Weg zum Meer, Transport museum in Kleinhüningen, Basel, Switzerland

The Verkehrsdrehscheibe Schweiz und unser Weg zum Meer is a museum of shipping and transport in Basel, housed in the Rhine port in the Kleinhüningen quarter near the Dreiländereck and the Siloturm. Around fifty ship models trace Rhine freight shipping between the North Sea and Basel, joined by railway, truck and aircraft models. A large model shows the Rhine with the ports of Basel-Kleinhüningen and Basel-St. Johann and their handling facilities as they looked in the mid-20th century; movable models demonstrate a lock, the unloading of a tanker and the transfer of liquid to rail and road.

The Swiss shipping company Schweizerische Reederei founded the museum in 1954 as "Unser Weg zum Meer". It was renamed in 1993 when the association Verkehrsdrehscheibe Schweiz took over as its supporting body, and that association has owned the museum since 2001. The cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft, companies and private individuals also contribute to it.

The name "Unser Weg zum Meer" (Our Way to the Sea) was chosen in 1954 by the Swiss shipping company that founded the museum, and was kept until the 1993 renaming. The exhibits trace how Rhine shipping linked Basel, 170 km from the open sea, with North Sea ports, and since 2005 they also cover salon and cabin passenger shipping alongside freight.

The museum is in the Kleinhüningen district, in the Rhine port near the Siloturm and the three-country corner. The large model of the Rhine and the ports of Basel-Kleinhüningen and Basel-St. Johann shows the transshipment facilities as they looked in the mid-20th century. Moving models demonstrate a lock, the unloading of a tanker and the transfer of liquid to rail and truck.

The museum features working models of Rhine ships and locks that visitors can watch in action, allowing them to see directly how these systems operated. These interactive demonstrations reveal how complex the coordination between water, rail, and road transport was in the past.