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The world of international journalism has lost one of its most esteemed voices. Dr. Uwe Siemon-Netto passed away in Laguna Woods, California, on Friday, August 29, 2025. He was 88.

Born in Leipzig, Gau Saxony, Germany, Uwe was the only child of Karl-Heinz Siemon (1897–1959) and Ruth Netto (1914–1991). His father, a Leipzig prosecutor, had been blinded and badly scarred in World War I, while his mother was a professional mezzo-soprano. After his parents' divorce when he was ten, the most stable presence in his life was his beloved grandmother, Clara Netto (1888–1976), who raised him in the Lutheran faith amidst the devastation of World War II.

As a boy wandering the ruins of Leipzig, he was already asking his father and grandmother questions as he observed the carnage around him. Who? What? Where? How? Why? When? It was inevitable that he would become a journalist. It was in his bones. It was his calling.

Uwe began his career in 1956 as a trainee at Westfalenpost, later joining the Associated Press in Frankfurt as editor and roving reporter. His reporting soon placed him at the frontlines of history: the building of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Six-Day War, the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, and five harrowing years in Vietnam, where he witnessed the 1968 Tet Offensive, the Huế massacre, and the fall of Saigon in 1975.

He served as correspondent for Springer's Foreign News Service and later as North American correspondent for Der Stern. From 1973–1986 he was Managing Editor of Hamburger Morgenpost, taught journalism at the Hamburg Journalistenschule, and continued to write for international outlets.

At age 50, Uwe turned back to the faith nurtured by his grandmother and began theological studies, earning an M.A. from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and a Ph.D. in theology and sociology of religion under Dr. Peter Berger at Boston University. His dissertation—later published as The Fabricated Luther: The Rise and Fall of the Shirer Myth—challenged the claim that Martin Luther was a forerunner of Hitler.

In the decades that followed, Uwe blended journalism and theology in a rare vocation. He advised newspapers in newly reunified Germany, co-founded the Lutheran quarterly Confessio Augustana, worked as religion editor for United Press International, and taught as scholar-in-residence at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. He also founded the Center for Lutheran Theology and Public Life, which later became part of 1517.org, where he served as Senior Distinguished Fellow.

His later writings included Triumph of the Absurd: A Reporter's Love for the Abandoned People of Vietnam and the first two volumes of his memoirs: Urchin at War (2021) and Urchin on the Beat (2024).

Uwe married Gillian Ackers in 1962 in New York City, shortly after his London wedding was postponed due to his mandated (by his editor) reporting on the Cuban Missile Crisis. Their marriage lasted nearly 60 years until her passing in 2022. That same year, he found unexpected new joy when he met Karin von Renthe-Fink; they married the following year in April 2023. Through Karin, Uwe gained a devoted extended family of four adult children (Donata Nilsen, and Christopher, Nicholas, and Catrina Paez), six grandchildren, and two great grandchildren, and together they shared deep companionship until his death.

Uwe Siemon-Netto is remembered as a fearless reporter, incisive thinker, faithful Lutheran, husband, stepfather, grandfather, and friend.

A memorial service will be held at Mission Lutheran Church, Laguna Niguel, California, on Saturday, September 20, at 12:15 PM.