Dieter Friedrich Uchtdorf (born 6 November 1940) is a German-American religious leader and former airline executive who serves as Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Born in Moravská Ostrava in Nazioccupied Czechoslovakia (now Ostrava, Czech Republic), he experienced World War II as a refugee child, fleeing with his mother and siblings through bombed areas to Zwickau in eastern Germany.
His family joined the Church in 1947 after his grandmother encountered a member in a soup line. When Uchtdorf was eleven, his father’s political dissent from Soviet rule endangered their lives. He was conscripted into the West German Bundeswehr in 1959 and volunteered for the air force, training as a fighter pilot in Big Spring, Texas, where he earned the Commander’s Trophy as the best student pilot in his class.
After six years as a fighter pilot, Uchtdorf joined Lufthansa in 1965, becoming a captain at age 29. His career included flying the Boeing 737, Airbus, DC-10, and Boeing 747, rising to senior vice president and chief pilot of Lufthansa flight operations. He also served as chairman of the Flight Operations Committee of the International Air Transport Association.
Called as a general authority in 1994, Uchtdorf was ordained an apostle on October 7, 2004—the first German apostle in Church history and the first born outside North America since 1952. He served as Second Counselor in the First Presidency from 2008 to 2018 under Thomas S. Monson. A naturalized U.S. citizen, he has been married to Harriet Reich since 1962; they have two children and multiple grandchildren. His messages on grace, new beginnings, and God’s love for all people have resonated across cultures and languages.