Arthur Axmann Member of the NSDAP, Reich Youth Fuhrer of the Nazi youth organization Hitler Youth Date of Birth: 18.02.1913 Country: Germany

Biography of Arthur Axmann

Arthur Axmann was a member of the NSDAP and the Reichsjugendführer of the Hitler Youth. Born on February 18, 1913, in Hagen, Germany, Axmann studied law as a student and founded the first Hitler Youth group in Westphalia in 1928. He was appointed as a Reichsleiter of the NSDAP in 1932 and was entrusted with the reorganization of youth organizations in Germany.

In 1933, Axmann became the leader of the Reich Youth Council, responsible for youth affairs in the Reich. He served in the military on the Western Front until May 1940 when he succeeded Baldur von Schirach as the Reichsjugendführer of the Hitler Youth. Axmann commanded Hitler Youth fighters who participated in the Zossen-Berlin operation during the Battle of Berlin. These young boys, lacking proper military training and equipment, suffered heavy casualties.

On January 4, 1944, Axmann was awarded the highest state honor of the Third Reich, the German Order. He and Konstantin Hierl were the only recipients of this award to survive the war. In 1945, Axmann faced pressure to allow girls to join the fight in a last-ditch effort to defend Germany. However, he refused, stating that women bring life into the world rather than taking it away.

During the last days of Hitler, Axmann was in the Führerbunker. On April 30, 1945, just before Hitler's suicide, Axmann, along with Dr. Ludwig Stumpfegger and Martin Bormann, left the bunker in an attempt to escape the encircling Soviet forces. They crossed the Spree River and headed towards Lert's Station. Axmann decided to separate from the group and travel in the opposite direction. He narrowly avoided a patrol of the Red Army but witnessed the bodies of his companions in the moonlight, just a meter away from the railway tracks.

Axmann assumed a new identity, Erich Siewert, and lived underground for several months. He even organized an underground Nazi movement, which was exposed and led to his arrest in December 1945. The Nuremberg Trials sentenced him to three years and three months of imprisonment. After his release, Axmann worked as a sales representative in Gelsenkirchen and Berlin.

In 1958, Axmann was fined 35,000 marks by a denazification court in West Berlin. The court found him guilty of promoting Nazi ideology among German youth but concluded that his actions were based on ideological conviction rather than personal gain. In his testimony, Axmann claimed to have heard the gunshot that ended Hitler's life and attempted to escape Berlin with Martin Bormann and Hitler's personal physician, who were unable to evade capture.

In his later years, Axmann focused on his business ventures and published his memoirs in 1976. He appeared in several documentaries about World War II and the Third Reich as an eyewitness to those events. Arthur Axmann passed away on October 24, 1996, in Berlin.