BASSERMANN, ERNST (1854-1917), German politician and leader of the National Liberal party, was born on June 26, 1854 at Wolsag in the Black Forest. He began his career in 1880 as a lawyer at Mannheim. From 1886 to 1892 he was deputy in the Baden Diet, and from 1893, with brief interruptions, a mem ber of the Reichstag. In 1905 he became president of the Na tional Liberal party. He died on July 17, 1917 at Mannheim.
a department of south-eastern France, formed in 1790 out of the northern portion of Provence. It is hounded on the north by the department of Hautes Alpes, east by Italy and Alpes Maritimes, south by Var and west by Vaucluse and Drome. Area, about 2,698 sq.m. ; pop. (1931) 87,893. It is a poor and hilly region, the highest summits (e.g., the Aiguille de Chambeyron, 11,155 ft.) rising round the upper Ubaye in the ex treme north. Only a small portion of the Durance valley, which crosses the west of the department, is under i,000 ft. Its chief tributaries are the Ubaye, Bleone, Asse and Verdon. The system of folds west of the Durance has an east-to-west trend, and is older than the true Alpine ridges which run north-to-south until they reach the extreme south of the department towards Moustiers, where they bend sharply eastwards between the old crystalline massifs of Mercantour and Esterel. From near the head of the Ubaye valley, the Col de l'Argentiere (6.545 ft.) gives access from Barcelonnette to Cuneo, in Italy. There are three arron dissements (Digne, Barcelonnette and Forcalquier), 3o cantons and 247 communes. The department forms the bishopric of Digne in the ecclesiastical province of Aix-en-Provence. Com munications are severely limited by natural conditions ; the main railway line from Grenoble to Avignon runs through the west of the department along the Durance from Sisteron to Manosque and has branch lines westwards to Forcalquier and eastwards to the valley of the Var through Digne. The mountain pastures have been much damaged by the Provençal shepherds to whom they are let out, while the forests have been greatly thinned, though extensive reafforestation is now being carried out. Popu lation has seriously declined in recent years, but industries are reviving with the application of hydro-electric power to industry; and the tourist trade is an additional source of income to the local population.