Dieter Friedrich Uchtdorf (born 6 November 1940) is a German aviator, airline executive and religious leader.

[6] His father was a customs officer, who was conscripted into the German Army toward the end of World War II and sent to the western front.

[7] When a young child, Uchtdorf traveled with his mother and three siblings through areas being bombed in a move to Zwickau in eastern Germany.

[11] When Uchtdorf was about eleven, his father's political beliefs, incongruent with Soviet rule, earned him the label of "dissenter", thus putting their lives in danger.

His sisters accomplished this by jumping from a moving train that happened to pass through West Germany, while Dieter and his mother climbed a mountain to avoid GDR guard checkpoints.

Uchtdorf started studying mechanical engineering at age 18 but later continued in business administration in Cologne and graduated from Institut pour l'Etude des Methodes de Direction de l'Entreprise (today the International Institute for Management Development) in Lausanne, with an MBA.

[13] He received an honorary doctorate in international leadership from Brigham Young University during the April 2009 graduation ceremony.

[14] When Uchtdorf was conscripted into the newly formed Bundeswehr in 1959, he volunteered for the air force, at age 19, to become a fighter pilot.

[11] After earning wings from both the German and US air forces, he served for six years as a fighter pilot in West Germany, leaving in 1965 to join Lufthansa.

While in Slovakia on 12 May 2006, Uchtdorf offered a prayer dedicating the land "for the preaching of the gospel", an LDS Church leadership custom usually observed at the time missionaries arrive in a new country.

Uchtdorf issued a statement noting the donations were made from a shared online family account and that having the contributions show in his name was an oversight.