Early works Starting in 1886, Meissner served in a number of important posts related to civil engineering in the Ottoman Empire. He worked on railways in southern
Bulgaria,
Macedonia,
Antalya and
Thrace.
Hejaz and Baghdad railways Meissner was invited to manage the construction of the
Hejaz Railway, the largest public works undertaking in the empire. In the eight years from 1900 to 1908, he was able to build the main section, from
Damascus to
Medina, including the
Jezreel Valley railway. In 1904 he received the title of
pasha from the Sultan for his work on the railway, stretching only from Damascus to
Ma'an at the time. After the
Young Turk Revolution of 1908, the Hejaz Railway project was abandoned, and Meissner moved on to the
Baghdad Railway project, funded by the
German Empire. In 1910 Meissner was chosen to manage the
Aleppo section of the railway, and later moved on to
Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) for the Baghdad section.
World War I In
World War I, Meissner served under
Djemal Pasha, who was his personal friend from their time in Mesopotamia. He helped build the Ottoman military railway system in
Palestine in the war. After the war he went back to Germany.
After the war In 1924 Meissner was invited by
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to continue his railway work. He oversaw the reconstruction and maintenance of many railway lines in Turkey and later taught at the
Istanbul Technical University. ==See also==