**A hive of activity in the tri-border region: the port at Basel-Kleinhüningen in July 1965.** ETH Image Archive

Switzerland’s gateway to the world

The majority of worldwide goods traffic goes by sea. Although Switzerland does not have direct sea access, it is connected to global maritime trade routes via the Rhine. The Swiss Rhine ports in Basel play a key role, as around ten per cent of all Swiss imports are handled there.

Jean-Luc Rickenbacher

Jean-Luc Rickenbacher is a historian and curator at the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne.

As far back as ancient times, the Rhine was already an important traffic and transport route. The way that vessels navigated up and down the river has changed significantly since then. People rowed and sailed, rafted, punted – where a boat was propelled forwards by pressing a long pole against the riverbed – and towed, where vessels were hauled from the bank by people, animals or machines.

The invention of the steam engine in the 19th century gave rise to the steamboat, enabling a form of travel that was not dependent on wind and weather conditions. At that time, the Rhine was still a strongly meandering river, with small islands jutting out, and recurring floods continually reshaping the landscape. River corrections and straightening were intended to confine the Rhine to a fixed channel for navigation. To this day, the legal basis of Rhine shipping is the revised Convention for Navigation of the Rhine – the so-called Mannheim Act – which was signed in 1868. The international convention guarantees free navigation on the Rhine. The guardian of the treaty is the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine (CCNR), whose members currently comprise the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France and Switzerland. The CCNR dates back to the Congress of Vienna of 1815 and is considered the world’s oldest existing international organisation.

**On 2 June 1904, the first train of barges reached Basel: the tugboat ‘Johann Knipscheer IX’ with the towed barge ‘Christina’.** Hafenmuseum, Basel

The diesel motor found its way into navigation on the Rhine in the 1920s: the motorised cargo vessel ‘Säntis’ off Kaub, with Pfalzgrafenstein Castle (bottom) and Gutenfels Castle (top) in the background, 1929. Swiss Ships/MB Archiv

First train of barges in Basel

The section of the Upper Rhine between Strasbourg and Basel was deemed impassable for large modern vessels up until the early 20th century. Basel engineer Rudolf Gelpke (1873–1940) opposed this view, publishing a work in 1902 on expanding large-scale navigation of that very stretch of the Rhine. A year later, he demonstrated this by sailing the screw steamer ‘Justitia’ up to the Mittlere Brücke in central Basel.

In 1904, the first train of barges, with the tugboat ‘Knipscheer IX’ and the barge ‘Christina’ loaded with 300 tonnes of coal, reached Basel. Tugging, where a motorised vessel would tow one or more barges, was widespread on the Rhine. While Basel had only had rudimentary wharfs and cargo handling points up until the 19th century, in 1906 work started on the construction of the first Rhine port in the St. Johann neighbourhood. Today, that site is home to the campus of Basel pharmaceutical giant, Novartis.

**Cranes loading goods from ships onto freight wagons at the St. Johann port, 1919.** Wikimedia, Schweizerische Rheinhäfen

**Until the 1960s, large coal yards dominated the port at Basel-Kleinhüningen.** SBB Historic

Expansion of the Rhine ports for a wide range of goods

The growth in freight transport necessitated an expansion of the port sites, and so the port at Basel-Kleinhüningen was excavated in 1919, and between 1936 and 1941, the port facilities in Birsfelden and the Auhafen in Muttenz were built. Goods such as grain, coal, gravel, fertiliser, chemical products and mineral oil were transported via the Rhine to Basel. This variety was reflected in the port infrastructure, which included grain silos, open coal depots, dockside cranes, roads, tracks for the port railway, fuel depots and the vessel traffic service centre for monitoring ship movements. Shipping was regarded as highly important to Switzerland’s national economic supply. In 1941, the Federal Council resolved to purchase seagoing vessels under its wartime emergency powers – and to make Switzerland a seafaring nation.

In parallel to this, Basel’s passenger navigation was developing, and the Dreiländereck (the point at which the borders of France, Germany and Switzerland meet) became a popular tourist destination in the 1950s. As the import of consumer goods increased, a growing number of container ships made their way to Basel from the 1980s. Containers became a symbol of global freight traffic, allowing efficient handling between ship, train and lorry. Basel evolved to become a key hub on the north-south transit axis from Rotterdam to Genoa.

**Cargo handling requires great coordination skills. A port worker in a command centre in Basel-Kleinhüningen, 1966.** ETH Image Archive
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**A small ‘floating shop’ supplied workers in the ports with all kinds of goods, from drinks to snacks and cigarettes. Photo from 1955.** ETH Image Archive
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Although navigation on the Rhine is considered very safe, disasters have occurred. The ‘Corona’ freight ship accident at Basel’s Mittlere Brücke in 1984 attracted a great deal of attention. As the ship was repeatedly pushed against the bridge piers by the current, it blocked shipping traffic for almost three weeks. Hafenmuseum, Basel
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**Grain dropping from the silo directly into a freight wagon in the port railway. Photo taken on 04.10.1974.** ETH Image Archive
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**The port of Birsfelden and in the background the Auhafen in Muttenz, 1986.** ETH Image Archive
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The port and its people

Many people in many occupations work hard to ensure that Rhine navigation and port operations run smoothly around the clock. As Rhine skippers were often away for weeks at a time, reconciling work and family life was a major challenge. Many of their children spent part of their youth at the Basel children's home for boatmen's families.

**Children watching the goings-on at port basin 1 in Kleinhüningen, 1959.** SBB Historic

**Children playing in front of the motor vessel ‘Lällekönig’ at the port in Basel-Kleinhüningen, 1955.** ETH Image Archive

From 1939, those who wanted a career on the Rhine would undertake sailor training aboard the training vessel ‘Leventina’. Reserved for young men, the training was as much about military discipline and wearing a uniform as about theoretical and practical teaching, exercise, swimming, cooking, and French and Dutch lessons. The occupation of riverboat skipper often shaped people’s whole lives, and many stayed connected through associations, the Seaman’s Club, the magazine Flaschenpost and the Schifferverein (skippers’ guild) or sailors’ choir.

Video report ‘Wie wird man Matrose?’ (How do you become a sailor?’) on the ‘Leventina’ training vessel in the programme Zytglogge of 9 June 1961. Youtube/SRF Archiv

The roles of ports are constantly changing: while large coal yards are a thing of the past and the proportion of mineral oil is in decline, other areas are becoming more important, such as the circular economy, digitally connected logistics and alternative energies. Women have also long since taken the helm as captains on the Rhine.

Switzerland’s nautical heritage is particularly in evidence in Basel’s Kleinhüningen neighbourhood. Besides the bustling port operations, it is home to the port museum and impressive buildings, restaurants and quayside pubs with names like ‘Rostiger Anker’ (‘The Rusty Anchor’), ‘Schiff’ (‘The Ship’) and ‘Seemannskeller’ (The Seaman’s Cellar’). Switzerland remains active in Rhine navigation to this day. In 2026 and 2027, it is chairing the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine and is therefore in a sense the guardian of the Mannheim Act.

Rhine ports – our gateway to the world

24.06.2026 / Swiss Museum of Transport

How do goods reach Switzerland? What processes are involved in shipping on the Rhine? And who ensures, day in, day out, that ports, ships and the movement of goods run smoothly? The new exhibition brings shipping on the Rhine to life and offers fascinating insights into a working and transport environment that is often little seen.

More of: Modern Age 20th / 21st century Economy Transportation

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