Rudolf August Oetker

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Rudolf August Oetker
Rudolf-August and Maja Oetker in 1966
Born	(1916-09-20)20 September 1916
Died	16 January 2007(2007-01-16) (aged 90)
Nationality	German
Occupation	Owner and CEO, Oetker-Gruppe
Political party	National Socialist German Workers' Party (1930s–45)
Children	Richard Oetker
Relatives	August Oetker (grandfather)

Rudolf August Oetker (20 September 1916 – 16 January 2007) was a German entrepreneur and former member of the Nazi Party,^[2] who became a billionaire running his private food company Oetker-Gruppe, founded by his grandfather August Oetker.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Oetker served and volunteered in the Waffen-SS from 1941–1944. Rudolf Oetker became the president of his family-run business in 1944. The business was inherited from his grandfather, August Oetker, who invented a popular mixture of baking powder.^[3][4][5][6]

Career[]

Rudolf August Oetker elevated the company to a household name in Germany today. The Oetker-Gruppe was one of the symbols of the post-World War II recovery effort in the country.

Oetker retired as executive director in 1981, turning the position over to his son August Oetker (jr.).

In 2006, his net worth was estimated by Forbes at US$8.0 billion.^[1]

Personal life[]

Oetker married three times and had eight children.^[1] His son Richard became CEO in 2010.

In 2014, the Oetker business empire was valued at $12 billion, and each of his eight children inherited an equal share of 12.5%, or about $1.5 billion:^[3]

• August Oetker
• Richard Oetker

After discovering Oetker's Nazi past, his children hired a provenance researcher to investigate the origins of his art collection. They have begun returning artworks found to be stolen or looted to the heirs of their Jewish owners.^[7] In 2019 a painting by Carl Spitzweg was restituted to the heirs of Leo Bendel who had been looted and murdered by Nazis.^[8] The painting had been acquired through the Galerie Heinemann in München.^[9]

See also[]

• Dr. Oetker
• Oetker Collection
• List of billionaires
• Colnaghi
• Richard Kaselowsky

References[]

• Jungbluth, Rüdiger (2004). Die Oetkers (in German). Campus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-593-37396-6.
• Gotta, Frank (1981). Die deutsche Wirtschaftsprominenz 1981 von A-Z: Lexikon der 200 bedeutendsten zeitgenössischen Persönlichkeiten aus der Wirtschaft (in German). WEKA-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8111-3046-3.

External links[]

• "Forbes World's Richest People". Forbes.
• "Is Dr Oetker really sincere about facing up to its Nazi past?". TVinemedia.
• Hinckley, Catherine. "Dr Oetker returns Van Dyck portrait looted by Göring". The Art Newspaper. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 10 May 2017.