Gerd von Hassler (1928–1989) was a German author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

, director, radio broadcaster, composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, singer, journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 and producer.

Life and career

He was born Hans Leo Gerd von Haßler zu Roseneckh near Augsburg

Augsburg

Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...

, he studied literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

, music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

 and ancient history

Ancient history

Ancient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of recorded human history to the Early Middle Ages. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, with Cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing, from the protoliterate period around the 30th century BC...

. He later wrote children's plays which he became most famous for and was a radio speaker in which he produced plays (Radio drama

Radio drama

Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...

). He also produced 27 records with which he composed or arranged music: shanties, student songs and folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

.

After finishing many of his popular radio plays, Hassler took an interest in publishing a number of books. His main interest was studying the legendary continent of Atlantis

Atlantis

Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....

, which he discussed and documented in various publications such as his 1976 book Noahs Weg zum Amazonas (Noah's route to the Amazon), which was translated in English by the paranormal writer Martin Ebon

Martin Ebon

Martin Ebon was a German American author of non-fiction books from the paranormal to politics.Born in Hamburg, Germany, Ebon immigrated to the United States in 1938....

 under the title of The lost survivors of the deluge (1980). In the book Hassler disussed evidence for a global flood due to worldwide flood legends, Summerians describing a boat similar to Noah's ark

Noah's Ark

Noah's Ark is a vessel appearing in the Book of Genesis and the Quran . These narratives describe the construction of the ark by Noah at God's command to save himself, his family, and the world's animals from the worldwide deluge of the Great Flood.In the narrative of the ark, God sees the...

, Noah

Noah

Noah was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs. The biblical story of Noah is contained in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, where he saves his family and representatives of all animals from the flood by constructing an ark...

 visiting the Amazon

Amazon Basin

The Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries that drains an area of about , or roughly 40 percent of South America. The basin is located in the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela...

 and Atlantis being the Garden of Eden

Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...

. The book is similar to the work of Charles Berlitz

Charles Berlitz

Charles Frambach Berlitz was an American linguist and language teacher known for his books on anomalous phenomena, as well as his language-learning courses. He is listed in The People's Almanac as one of the fifteen most eminent linguists in the world.-Life:Berlitz was born in New York City...

but Hassler never received mainstream recognition for his book like Berlitz did.

Published works

• Noahs Weg zum Amazonas, (1976) Later printed as Lost Survivors of the Deluge (1980) ISBN 0451083652
• Rätselhaftes Wissen, 1977
• Wenn die Erde kippt, 1981
• Welt ohne Notausgang, 1984
• Der Menschen törichte Angst vor der Zukunft, 1987