Alexander Lion Alexander Franz Anton Lion ( 15 December 1870 – 2 February 1962 ) was the co - founder of the German Scout Movement . Early life . Lion was born in Berlin , the second son of six children in a Jewish banker ' s family . His parents were the merchant and banker Max Lion and Cäcilia Loeser . Between 1876 and 1880 he was privately tutored at home , after which he went to high school . At the age of 16 , Lion left the Jewish community , and was later baptized a Catholic . On 5 August 1889 , Lion was awarded a bronze medal of the Order of Orange - Nassau after saving the life of a drowning boy . He learnt French at high school and took additional private lessons to learn English . After leaving school he studied medicine at University in Würzburg , Berlin and Kiel . At Easter 1893 Lion signed up as a volunteer in the Bavarian army . Between 1904 and 1906 he served as a surgeon during the Herero and Namaqua Genocide in German South - West Africa . While serving in South - West Africa he met the man with whom he would later go on to found the German branch of the Scout Movement , Maximilian Bayer . Founding of the German Scout Movement . In March 1908 Lion read an article in " The Times " entitled " Scouting as a Sport " . This brought the founder of the Scout Movement , Robert Baden - Powell , to his attention , and later , in August that year , he began corresponding with Baden - Powell . Shortly after Lion wrote his first article about Scouting in the magazine " " Ärztliche Rundschau " " . During a month long study tour of England in 1909 , he spent three days in London with Baden - Powell . Following this meeting he set up the German Scout movement , writing the book " " Das Pfadfinderbuch " " , ( the Scouting book ) . , with Maximilian Bayer . In January 1909 " Jugendsport in Wald und Feld " , a club to promote Scouting in Germany , was founded . Lion and Bayer were among the founding members . In 1912 " " Das Pfadfinderbuch " " , was published in its 3rd edition as " " Jungdeutschlands Pfadfinderbuch " " , which was a stronger German adaptation of " Scouting for Boys " than the two first editions . In 1911 , the German federal Scouting organisation was set up , with Lion as a founding member . The following year , Bayer , Lion and von Seckendorff helped Elise von Hopffgarten to write " Pfadfinderbuch für junge Mädchen " ( " the scouting book for young girls " ) . Free of patriotic language and slogans , they wanted to make young women more independent . Bayer , Lion and von Seckendorff were subject to attack from General von Jacobi , who accused them of , amongst other things , lacking in support for their country , King and religion . Jacobi created an anti - Semitic cartoon lampooning Lion , playing on Lion ' s Jewish birth , changing " Jungensport in Feld und Wald " ( youth sports in field and forest ) to " " Judensport " in Wald und Feld " ( Jews ' sports in forest and field ) , and calling Scouting supporter General Baschwitz a " vain Jewish man " . In 1913 Alexander Lion met Emmerich Teuber , an Austrian Scouting pioneer and later member of the International Committee of the World Organization of the Scout Movement , and the two Scout Leaders became friends . First World War . On the outbreak of the First World War , Lion became head physician at a field hospital , and worked to treat the wounded on the front lines , work for which he received the Prussian Iron Cross Class II . On 14 October 1915 he became the head physician for the 2nd Royal Bavarian Division . Serving in Lens , he rescued wounded and dying soldiers from the battlefield . For this work he received the Bavarian Merit Cross . At the end of 1915 , Lion was requested to help the German troops stationed in the Ottoman Empire . There he met Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz , who was a big supporter of the Scouting movement in Germany and Lion and Bayer . From April 1916 Lion was a doctor for the First Turkish Expedition Corps . However , in August of that year , Lion fell ill with dysentery . Later that year , in October , he was awarded the Ottoman War Medal for his work . A month later , he returned from the front line to Munich , where his family now lived . In 1917 he returned to the Turkish front , later moving to the Romanian front , serving at Bukovina with the Royal Bavarian Cavalry Division . After the ceasefire on the Romanian front , he returned to France , serving at Reims and the Somme . Again he put himself at great personal risk to rescue the wounded , winning him the Iron Cross , Class I and the Bavarian Military Merit Cross , 3rd class with Swords . At the end of the war he was serving with the 39th Reserve Division in the Vosges . The Inter - War Period . After the war , Lion joined a volunteer division , Freikorps Epp , taking part in the dismantling of the Bavarian Soviet Republic . The last military rank he hold was that of a Generaloberarzt a . D . After being demobbed from the army in 1921 , Lion worked as a doctor at the spa resort of Oberhof . He was also chief of the German Red Cross in Gotha . From 1923 to 1926 he was an active member of the German Democratic Party . The introduction of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935 saw Lion classified as a Jew and his civil rights suspended . In 1936 Alexander Lion became Honorary Scoutmaster of the Österreichischer Pfadfinderbund , which was the Austrian interdenominational member organization of World Scouting since 1922 . Even during the Third Reich , Lion remained in contact with his friends in the Scouts in other countries . When Austria was annexed by Germany at Anschluss , the Gestapo found incriminating documents , sparking a wave of arrests among Scouts . On 2 November 1938 , Lion was arrested by the Gestapo and subjected to lengthy interrogations . On 19 November , he was moved to the Gestapo ' s headquarters . There he was put on trial , but , thanks to a skillful defence , he was sentenced to only 10 months for treason . The Second World War . Until 1942 , Lion lived in Kolbermoor . However , he was then denounced by a supporter of the Nazi Party , but the Mayor personally secured his safety . Lion ' s brother , Richard , and his wife , Beatrice , both died in the Bergen - Belsen concentration camp . Lion ' s sister , Rosa , died in Vught concentration camp on 02 . 05 . 1943 . After the Second World War . Immediately after the end of the war , Lion became the head of the Youth Office in Bad Aibling , using his position to build up the Federation of German Scouts , and in October 1948 he was appointed the honorary president of the organisation . He became the driving force in the reconstruction of the Scouting movement , first in Bavaria , but later across the whole of Germany . With his involvement , the first Scout camp of the post - war period war held near Munich between 8 and 10 June 1946 . In the same year , the Bavaria Federation of German Scouting was founded , with Lion as its honorary president . In July and August of the same year , a Scout camp was organised at the Chiemsee lake with groups attending from Munich , Cologne and Hesse . In 1948 he took part in an international Scout meeting in Mittenwald . On 16 October 1946 , Lion gave a lecture regarding the Scouting Movement on Radio Munich , giving the movement widespread publicity . In the same year he was officially recognised as a victim of persecution by the Nazi regime . Between 1946 and 1948 Lion was a member of the denazification court in Bad Aibling . He became honorary president of the new founded Bund Deutscher Pfadfinder . In August 1951 he took part in the 7th World Scout Jamboree at Bad Ischl , Austria . Lion died on 3 February 1962 . He is buried in the cemetery in Fischach .