| Rudolf August Oetker | |
| Birth Date: | 20 September 1916 |
| Birth Place: | Bielefeld, German Empire |
| Party: | National Socialist German Workers' Party (1930s–1945) |
| Death Place: | Hamburg, Germany |
| Occupation: | Owner and CEO of Oetker-Gruppe |
| Children: | Richard Oetker |
| Relatives: | August Oetker (grandfather) Richard Kaselowsky (stepfather) |
| Family: | Oetker family |
Rudolf August Oetker (20 September 1916 – 16 January 2007) colloquially also R.A. Oetker was a German industrialist, businessman, ship owner and philanthropist. Most notably he turned Dr. Oetker, founded by his grandfather August Oetker, into a multinational food conglomerate. During World War II, Oetker was a member of the Nazi Party.[1]
Oetker was born 20 September 1916 in Bielefeld, German Empire, the second child of Rudolf Oetker (1889–1916), a chemist, who fell in Verdun before his son was born, and Ida Oetker (née Meyer; 1891–1944). He had an older sister; Ursula Oetker (1915–2005).
Oetker served and volunteered in the Waffen-SS from 1941 to 1944. After his stepfather, Richard Kaselowsky, was killed in an air raid, 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.[2] [3] [4] [5]
After the war, Oetker was interned in the Staumühle internment camp near Paderborn. When his SS blood group tattoo was discovered under his left armpit, which identified him as a member of the SS, he was brutally beaten by the guards. For years after the war, Oetker would need a cane to walk. He was released from custody in 1947. He would elevate 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.[6] In 1960s, Oetker funded Stille Hilfe, a relief organization for the SS veterans, fugitives, and convicted war criminals.[7]
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.[8]
In 1939, Oetker married firstly to Marlene Ahlmann (1915–2002), originally from Cologne which also hailed from an industrial family. Her family owned Carlshütte, a iron foundry, which employed up to 3,000 people.[9] They had one daughter;
In 1943, he married secondly to divorcee Susanne Schuster (née Jantsch; 1922-2012), who would later marry Karl, Prinz zu Salm-Horstmar (1911–1991). They had four children;
On 8 February 1963, Oetker married Marianne (Maja) von Malaisé (born 1934), of nobility. With her he had three children;
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. 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.[10] In 2019 a painting by Carl Spitzweg was restituted to the heirs of Leo Bendel who had been looted and murdered by Nazis.[11] The painting had been acquired through the Galerie Heinemann in Munich.[12]