Friedrich Bassler (21 June 1909, Karlsruhe – 7 September 1992, Freiburg im Breisgau) was a German hydraulic engineer. From 1961 to 1977 he was director of the Institut für Wasserbau und Wasserwirtschaft (Department of water engineering and management) at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt. From 1964 till 1973 Bassler helped to develop the hydro-solar energy project at the Qattara Depression further. He directed the "Board of Advisers" which was responsible for the planning and financing of the project. For the Egyptian government he served as an advisor on the project. Life Friedrich Bassler descended from Alemannic-Swiss forefathers paternally. However, his mother's family originated from Neumark (now in Poland). His father, Fritz Bassler, was an employee with the local newspaper, while his mother took on the role of housewife. In World War II he was conscripted into the Wehrmacht and was stationed in Egypt in 1941 and 1942. During the German North Africa Campaign he served as a Luftwaffe officer under Field Marshall Rommel in the Western Desert near the Qattara Depression. He sustained a war injury and was captured by the Americans. He returned to Karlsruhe in 1947, where he became the founder of an engineering company and started working for Schluchseewerk AG at Freiburg. For twelve years he was in charge of planning activities and oversaw construction of tunnels and power plants. Simultaneously he took up the position of Operating Director of a three-stage pumped-storage hydroelectricity plant in the Black Forest. During this Freiburg period, he married Janine in 1951, and they had two children: Michael (1952) and Sibylle (1957). Academic career From 1927, Bassler studied electrical engineering at the Technischen Hochschule Karlsruhe for two semesters, before switching to civil engineering. After the 1932 exams, he became a research fellow. He successfully completed the subsequent traineeship in late 1936. A water management exploration expedition took him to Liberia. In 1956, he received his doctorate at the 'Technischen Universität Berlin' with his dissertation on „Gesichtspunkte bei der Wahl einer Talsperren-Bauart“ or "Considerations when choosing a dam design". In 1961, he became a professor at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt. As holder of the then new chair he became director of the "Institut für Wasserbau und Wasserwirtschaft". From 1964 onward, he committed himself to the "Qattara Depression Project" in Egypt. In 1966, he founded the scientific journal Darmstädter Wasserbau-Mitteilungen or, in short, Wasserbau-Mitteilungen. Apart from that he was a member of the planning