Erich W. Kopischke
Encyclopedia
Erich Willi Kopischke has been a general authority
General authority
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , a general authority is a member of certain leadership organizations who are given administrative and ecclesiastical authority over the church...

 of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) since March 2007.

Kopischke was born in Elmshorn
Elmshorn
Elmshorn is a town in the district of Pinneberg in Schleswig-Holstein in Germany. It is located 32 km north of Hamburg at the small river Krückau, close to the Elbe river, is the sixth-largest city in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany...

, West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

. His parents, Kurt Kopischke and Helga Haupt, had joined the LDS Church during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Shortly before Kopischke's birth, his parents had fled East Germany. As a youth, Kopischke always suffered motion sickness
Motion sickness
Motion sickness or kinetosis, also known as travel sickness, is a condition in which a disagreement exists between visually perceived movement and the vestibular system's sense of movement...

 during trips to the LDS Church's Bern Switzerland Temple
Bern Switzerland Temple
The Bern Switzerland Temple is a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . Though the building is located in Münchenbuchsee, its postal address is assigned to the neighboring municipality of Zollikofen...

.

From 1975 to 1977, Kopischke served as a LDS Church missionary
Missionary (LDS Church)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the most active modern practitioners of missionary work, with over 52,000 full-time missionaries worldwide, as of the end of 2010...

 in the Germany Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

 Mission
Mission (LDS Church)
A mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a geographical administrative area to which church missionaries are assigned. Almost all areas of the world are within the boundaries of an LDS Church mission, whether or not Mormon missionaries live or proselytize in the area...

. In December 1978, Kopischke married Christiane Glück in the Bern Switzerland Temple. They now have seven children.

Kopischke served in many callings in the church. He was the stake president in Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...

 from 1994 to 2003. During this time, the English-speaking
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 stake composed primarily of United States military personnel and the German-speaking
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 Nuremberg District
District (LDS Church)
A district of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a geographical administrative unit composed of a number of congregations called branches. A district is a subdivision of a mission of the church and in many ways is analogous to a stake of the church. The leader of a district is the...

 were combined. Since Kopischke had learned English while working in the mission office on his mission, he was linguistically qualified to preside over the stake during this time.

Kopischke spent most of the 1980s and early 1990s working in the insurance industry. In 1996, he became the Church Educational System
Church Educational System
The Church Educational System of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints consists of several institutions that provide religious and secular education for both Latter-day Saint and non-Latter-day Saint elementary, secondary, and post-secondary students and adult learners...

 director in Germany. From 2003 to 2006, he served as president
Mission president
Mission president is a priesthood leadership position in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . A mission president presides over a mission and the missionaries serving in the mission...

 of the LDS Church's Germany Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 Mission. On returning from this assinment he became an area seventy. While in this position, he was a counselor in the presidency of the church's Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 Central Area
Area (LDS Church)
An area is an administrative unit of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which typically is composed of multiple stakes and missions...

. He served in this position until his call to the First Quorum of the Seventy in 2007.

In 2008, Kopischke was made the first counselor in the new Europe Area presidency.

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