Alexander Lion

Alexander Franz Anton Lion (15 December 1870 – 2 February 1962) was the co-founder of the German Scout Movement.

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.

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.

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