Artur Axmann  Artur Axmann (18 February 1913 – 24 October 1996) was the German Nazi national leader ("Reichsjugendführer") of the Hitler Youth ("Hitlerjugend") from 1940 to the war's end in 1945. He was the last living Nazi with a rank equivalent to "Reichsführer". Axmann was born in Hagen, Westphalia, the son of an insurance clerk. In 1916, his family moved to Berlin-Wedding, where his father died two years later. Young Axmann was a good student and received a scholarship to attend secondary school. He joined the Hitler Youth in November 1928, after he heard Nazi "Gauleiter" Joseph Goebbels speaking, and became leader of the local cell in the Wedding district. He also joined the National Socialist Schoolchildren's League, where he distinguished himself as an orator. In September 1931, Axmann joined the Nazi Party and the next year he was called to the NSDAP "Reichsjugendführung" to carry out a reorganisation of Hitler Youth factory and vocational school cells. After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, he rose to a regional leader and became Chief of the Social Office of the Reich Youth Leadership. Axmann directed the Hitler Youth in state vocational training and succeeded in raising the status of Hitler Youth agricultural work. In November 1934, he was appointed Hitler Youth leader of Berlin and from 1936 presided at the annual "Reichsberufswettkampf" competitions. On 30 January 1939 he was awarded the Golden Party Badge. Since October 1941, Axmann became a member of the Reichstag constituency of East Prussia. After World War II began, Axmann was on active service on the Western Front until May 1940. On 1 May 1940, he was appointed deputy to Nazi "Reichsjugendführer" Baldur von Schirach, whom he succeeded three months later on 8 August 1940. As a member of the Wehrmacht 23rd Infantry Division, he was severely wounded on the Eastern Front in 1941, losing his right arm. In early 1943, Axmann proposed the formation of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend to Heinrich Himmler, with servicemen drawn from the Hitler Youth. Hitler approved the plan for the combat division to be made up of Hitler Youth members born in 1926. Thereafter, recruitment and training began. In the last weeks of the war in Europe, Axmann commanded units of the Hitler Youth, which had been incorporated into the Home Guard ("Volkssturm").