Erich W. Kopischke

Erich Willi Kopischke (born 20 October 1956) has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) since 2007.
Kopischke was born in Elmshorn, West Germany. His parents, Kurt Kopischke and Helga Haupt, joined the LDS Church during World War II. Shortly before Kopischke's birth, his parents fled East Germany.
From 1975 to 1977, Kopischke served as an LDS Church missionary in the Germany Munich Mission. In December 1978, Kopischke was sealed to Christiane Glück in the Swiss Temple and they are the parents of seven children.
Kopischke has served in many callings in the LDS Church. He was president of Nuremberg Germany Stake from 1994 to 2003. During this time, the English-speaking stake, composed primarily of United States military personnel, and the German-speaking Nuremberg District were combined. Since Kopischke had learned English while working in the mission office on his mission, he was able manage matters of the stake in both languages used by its members.
Kopischke spent most of the 1980s and early 1990s working in the insurance industry. In 1996, he became the Church Educational System area director in the church's Europe Central Area. From 2003 to 2006, he served as president of the Germany Berlin Mission. After returning from this assignment, he became an area seventy and served as second counselor in the presidency of the church's Europe Central Area. He was called as a general authority and member of the First Quorum of the Seventy in 2007. He then served first as a counselor, then from 2009 to 2012 as president of the church's Europe Area.