Dr. August Oetker KG

Dr. August Oetker KG
legal form	Limited partnership
founding	1891
Seat	Bielefeld , Germany
Number of employees	34,060 (2019)
turnover	EUR 7.406 billion (2019)
Branch	Food, beverage, finance and hospitality industries
Website	www.oetker-gruppe.de

The Dr. August Oetker KG, with its headquarters in Bielefeld in East Westphalia, is one of the largest internationally active German family groups . It is the holding company of the Oetker Group and appears in public under this name.

The Oetker Group includes around 400 companies from various industries. The consolidated companies generated sales of around 7.4 billion euros in the 2019 financial year. The Oetker Group employs around 34,000 people worldwide.

In the 2016 Wirtschaftsblatt magazine's ranking of the 1000 largest family businesses in Germany in terms of turnover , the company ranks 18th.

story

Founding phase

Patent baking powder

10 g backin pack (1902)

In January 1891 August Oetker took over the Aschoff'sche Apotheke in the East Westphalian city of Bielefeld , one of four pharmacies in the city. In this he expanded the laboratory to experiment and implement new ideas. The first products included a health cocoa, a foot cream and a wart tincture.

In the laboratory of the pharmacy and in the Müller house of the bakery of the same name, he carried out his first experiments on the production of baking powder . He was familiar with the baking process from his father's bakery in Obernkirchen . Back then, sourdough or yeast were used to loosen the bread dough . As early as the middle of the 19th century, England had started adding substances to the dough that developed carbon dioxide during the baking process in order to loosen it up. In Germany, the chemist Justus Liebig had experimented in this direction, but the mixtures of substances he developed had too short a shelf life due to premature reactions. A student had taken Liebig's ideas with him to America and there he industrially produced baking powder based on soda and tartaric acid . Oetker may have been informed of this by a relative. In any case, it is undisputed that Oetker was not the inventor of baking powder. In 1901, Oetker applied for a patent for an improved, long-life baking powder and sold it, suitable for a pound of flour, in small bags of 10  pfennigs under the Backin brand , which was registered on November 27, 1902. The low cost of the preliminary products enabled a large profit margin.

Oetker used his doctor degree specifically as a marketing element, suggesting baking powder to customers as a new, professionally developed and tested product with guaranteed functionality . The advertising strategy aimed at positive values ​​such as health and quality was the actual invention of Oetker that made its product so successful. Oetker's advertising activities also included what is known as content marketing today , in which he published his own baking book with recipes that used his baking powder as an ingredient. Also located recipe suggestions found on the Backin packings. The Dr. Oetker school cookbook , which was published for the first time in 1911, became one of the most successful cookbooks on the market. August Oetker attended trade fairs and won a gold medal at a culinary art exhibition in Hamburg, which he then reported on in his newspaper advertisements. In 1908 the first advertising department was set up. This formulated the goal that advertisements should be placed in every newspaper in a place with more than 3000 inhabitants .

In 1900 Oetker founded a factory on Lutterstrasse in Bielefeld, which is now the parent company. From here he was soon supplying the entire German Empire with baking powder. Up to 100,000 parcels were delivered here every day. Other products such as pudding powder , flavors and cornstarch were also developed there. A second factory building was built after just one year. Its representatives were instructed that from 1907 Oetkers products would have to be represented in every shop. In 1904, Oetker hired his younger brother Eduard Oetker, a scientist, to head the laboratory of the growing company. In 1906 his brother Louis Oetker followed, who took over the field service and the advertising department. 1913 Edward died at the age of 38 from cancer, Louis had previously left Bielefeld a year and in Hameln operation part Reese adopted.

Oetker created better working conditions for his workers and had a training kitchen set up in his company, which was used to train the workers in order to prepare them for marriage. Oetker's work discipline was notorious. He formulated his rules in 1908 and hung them up in the company:

• Work, work under the strain of all forces.
• Be thrifty!
• Time is your capital, every minute must bring you interest!

First World War and the aftermath

Promotion for Dr. Oetker's products from 1903

Rudolf Oetker , the only son of August and Karoline Oetker, received his doctorate in 1914 after studying chemistry and then joined his father's company. In the First World War , which began shortly thereafter , he was drafted into the Uhlans, among other things, transferred to the front in France , where he fought in the Verdun area from the turn of the year 1914/15 and fell on March 8, 1916. He left a young daughter and a later son.

As a result, August Oetker lost his strength and courage to face life. He arranged his successor by making the employee Fritz Behringer a partner and managing director. He should continue to run the company for the grandson and then hand it over to him. August Oetker died on January 10, 1918 at the age of 56 when his grandson was not yet two years old.

The Oetker company was able to benefit from the war economy by receiving military orders. In addition, the demand for baking powder grew when the authorities banned the use of yeast in baked goods at the end of 1915. In 1918 sales were twice as high as in 1914. August also played the national card: “German housewives! From now on I will only buy the German Gustin instead of the English Mondamin. "

After the First World War

Karoline Oetker left the management of the company to Fritz Behringer, who was appointed managing director. Her widowed daughter-in-law Ida married Richard Kaselowsky in 1919 , an old childhood friend of Rudolf Oetker , who came from an industrial family in Bielefeld. Behringer died on February 9, 1921. His successors were Richard Kaselowsky and Louis Oetker, a brother of the company founder. On March 1, 1921, both became partners in Dr. Oetker. Kaselowsky ran the company as trustee for the underage heir Rudolf-August Oetker , not as the owner

The company Dr. Oetker initially achieved spectacular sales success , as a result of the demand pent up due to the war . However, from 1920 onwards, sales figures plummeted and orders fell by 75%. Oetker could not pay the suppliers' bills and the debt increased. His supplier for the biological acidulant Weinstein was Chemische Fabrik vorm. Goldenberg, Geromont and Cie. from Winkel in the Rheingau , which had the exclusive right of representation of the American manufacturer in Germany. Both companies were dependent on each other and had negotiated cross-shareholdings from 1916 onwards. Due to the debts of Oetker, Goldenberg tried the Dr. Oetker by threatening to call the loan due. Kaselowsky assured that the debts would be paid, but a larger amount of the profit would be paid.

The new managing directors took advantage of the economic situation of the inflationary period , when the inflation rate reached 1300% as early as 1922. Such inflation rates were not assumed in the contract with Goldenberg. Oetker hardly had to pay anything for the raw materials that Goldenberg supplied, as the price of the raw materials could not be adjusted while the sale of Oetker goods increased in ever larger price levels. Richard Kaselowsky refused to convert the supply contract to the inflation-proof gold mark . The subsequent legal proceedings ended with a settlement, the goods were paid for at real prices, but the mutual participation was dissolved, Oetker was completely in family hands again. In 1923, Oetker acquired the Budenheim chemical factory , which manufactured the necessary preliminary products for the leavening agents.

After the currency reform

After the currency reform in 1923 things picked up again, Germany was freed from its debts and companies were able to take out loans again. Richard Kaselowsky decided in 1924 to open a branch in Hamburg in order to supply northern Germany from there. Family member Albert Oetker produced marzipan in another Hamburg production facility . A branch for the Eastern European market was established in Gdansk . In Bielefeld, investments were made in new filling and packaging systems in a new factory building on Steinmetzstrasse.

Paul Sackewitz implemented new advertising strategies. Among other things, vehicles drove to the smallest of villages and distributed sweets to the children there. In the subsequent Dr. Oetker baking lesson , the products were introduced to the people and new customers were won. In the big cities, so-called Oetker and Persil schools were set up together with the Henkel company .

Richard Kaselowsky expanded and in 1925 took over the majority of the renowned Bielefeld printing and publishing company E. Gundlach AG, whose supervisory board chair he took over. In addition to the packaging and posters, Gundlach produced the Westphalian Latest News newspaper as well as other specialist magazines and books. Oetker had a large number of cookery and baking books printed here.

In 1930, Richard Kaselowsky sat on several supervisory boards, according to the stock handbook , at Chemische Fabrik Budenheim AG in Mainz , E. Gundlach AG , meat products factory Vogt & Wolf Aktiengesellschaft in Gütersloh and Deutsche Bank .

During the global economic crisis , Oetker had to lay off staff.

time of the nationalsocialism

Headquarters of the Dr. August Oetker Nahrungsmittel KG in Bielefeld

After the National Socialists came to power in January 1933, the managing director of Oetker-Werke, Richard Kaselowsky, joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1933 . After the Reichstag election on March 5, 1933 , a large, brightly shining swastika was emblazoned on the Oetkerhalle donated by Oetker , and a huge portrait of Adolf Hitler was attached to the facade of the hall . The directly adjacent Bürgerpark was renamed Adolf-Hitler-Park on April 20 of the same year by the city of Bielefeld.

Richard Kaselowsky had been Oetker's sole head of the company since Louis Oetker's death in 1933. Kaselowsky was also a member of the " Freundeskreis Reichsführer SS ", in which industrialists and entrepreneurs gathered who were "selected, politically reliable and loyal people"

He made several donations to the NSDAP: Two large donations of 40,000  Reichsmarks from 1943 and 1944 are known. In 1935, the Oetker Group left its newspaper “Westfälische Latest Nachrichten”, which was produced in the Gundlach printing company, to the NSDAP, which combined it with the party's own newspaper “NS-Volksblatt für Westfalen”. There was no money for this transaction, especially since ownership of the newspaper and thus the transfer of economic control did not become the property of the NSDAP until April 1, 1940. In return, Gundlach received print jobs from the party.

On September 9, 1935, Kaselowsky and 24 other Bielefeld citizens were appointed councilor by the NSDAP commissioner (for the statutory term of six years). In addition, he became a board member of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 1933 and its president from July 18, 1942 to May 15, 1943.

Since 1933, the Oetker company has been doing better and better. The Hamburg plant has been working double shifts since 1934 . In 1935/36 the two factory halls in Bielefeld were demolished and replaced by new buildings. A new large hall for meetings has been integrated here, previously these had always taken place in the bottling plant.

The war economy of the company was initially not harm. Powdered pudding was available for a separate section of the grocery menu. Oetker also increasingly benefited from government contracts: Gundlach printed food stamps and forms for the Nazi bureaucracy. One of the largest orders from Gundlach at the time was an order from the cigarette manufacturer Reemtsma for a million albums for collector's pictures.

In 1937, Dr. Oetker, as one of 30 companies in Germany, was awarded the National Socialist Model Company award by the German Labor Front after a competition . In 1938 the company received a performance badge for the exemplary promotion of the establishment Kraft durch Freude . In 1938, Oetker was represented with its own office in Berlin, above all in order to have good contacts with the local bureaucracy in the rationing economy , in which one could no longer freely buy raw materials. Oetker was also involved in the lucrative "Society for Nutritional Preservation" project, with which the Army Administration Office involved leading German food companies in order to ensure that soldiers were fed. In 1941 the Hamburg branch moved into a new building in order to be able to expand production.

On January 13, 1941, Oetker celebrated its 50th anniversary with a big party in Bielefeld. In a greeting, Gauleiter Alfred Meyer wrote : “There was a time when it was not popular to confess to the party. Your operator already did it back then . "

While the Oetker company could not prove any forced laborers, some were employed at the Oetker printing house in Gundlach. On the other hand, Jewish employees were forced out of the company. The situation was similar at the Adler sewing machine works , which were mostly owned by the Oetker Group and had completely converted to armaments production: forced labor was also employed here.

In 1943 the Oetker company cooperated with the Waffen-SS and founded the Hunsa-Forschungs-GmbH in Hamburg. This company should explore ways to produce artificial foods from by-products and residual products of industrial waste.

Richard Kaselowsky died on September 30, 1944 in a bomb attack on Bielefeld. His wife Ida and their two daughters died with him. The grandson of the company founder, Rudolf-August Oetker , took over the management of the company and was released from military service. He had been a member of the Reiter SA since the early 1930s . In 1942 he enlisted in the Waffen SS and fought on the Eastern Front .

In 2009, two years after Rudolf-August Oetker's death, the family commissioned the historian Andreas Wirsching (Director of the Institute for Contemporary History at the University of Munich ) to critically review the history of the company during the Nazi era. The study was published in October 2013 at the title “Dr. Oetker and National Socialism ”. The researchers judge: "The family and the Oetker company were pillars of the Nazi society, they sought proximity to the regime and benefited from its policies." In October 2013, August Oetker told the weekly newspaper Die Zeit : "My father was a National Socialist".

Reconstruction in the post-war period

Oetker Marketing

After the Second World War, around 40% of the buildings were destroyed and the necessary raw materials were missing. Oetker tried to use the factories to capacity by expanding production and also producing spice and tea tablets as well as moth powder. In the Gundlach printing works, a few machines were soon able to start up again, and food stamps were printed there.

Rudolf-August Oetker took over the company in Bielefeld in September 1947 after he had been released from the British internment camp at Staumühle and was again available to manage the company.

With the increase in purchasing power after the currency reform of June 20, 1948 , demand also increased in the western occupation zones of Germany . At the end of 1948, production in the economy reached almost 80% of the pre-war level. In 1950 Oetker sold 400 million packets of baking powder and 350 million packets of pudding powder; It was now paying off that Oetker had invested in advertising and that the brand was known by customers.

Diversification and internationalization of the group of companies

The administration building of Hamburg Süd in Hamburg

In addition to the food business, Rudolf-August Oetker was also involved in other industries. This diversification should offset risks. His stepfather Kaselowsky had already bought a quarter of the shares in the shipping company Hamburg-Südamerikanische Dampfschifffahrtsgesellschaft in 1936 and thus invested outside the core business for the first time. In 1949 this stake was increased to 49% of the capital. Oetker then converted the shipping company into a limited partnership and, from 1950 to 1954, used the tax structuring options, according to which the loans given by the food division to the shipping company for the construction of new ships could mathematically reduce the profits from the production of food thereby reduced the tax burden. In the mid-1950s, when the liable owners were about to change their generations, Oetker had himself registered so that he then owned the entire shipping company.

At the beginning of the Second World War, Oetker took over a stake in the renowned Hotel Brenner in Baden-Baden . In the 1960s , Oetker acquired stakes in the Dortmunder Actien brewery , the Binding brewery and Berliner Kindl and later other breweries that were combined in the Radeberger Group . In 1958 Oetker acquired the Sektkellerei Sohnlein and in 1986 the Sektkellerei Henkell , which was expanded into a separate company division in the beverage sector.

As the successor to his father, August Oetker managed the company as a personally liable partner from 1981 to 2009 , with Guido Sandler as a further general partner during this time . While Rudolf-August Oetker stood for the diversification of the corporate group, his son relied on the internationalization of the Oetker Group's business. The main field of activity is, with the exception of shipping, Europe . The Mexican company D'Gari , a leading manufacturer of gelatine products such as jelly , has been part of the group since 2015 .

The three-person group management is responsible for the strategy and direction of the group, whose members are each responsible for one of the business areas.

Hamburg location

Outside the main location in Bielefeld, a factory was built in Hamburg as early as the 1930s and expanded after the Second World War. The additional shipping line strengthened this location. In Hamburg, Dr. Oetker opened the representative city villa “In de Bost” in 1953. This property was expanded by Caesar Pinnau , who did a lot for Dr. Oetker built. At times the group was managed from Hamburg. In the dispute over the Kunsthalle Bielefeld , Rudolf-August Oetker threatened to relocate to Hamburg.

Discussion about the Bielefelder Kunsthalle

Bielefeld Art Gallery

The group leader Oetker always remained connected to his hometown Bielefeld. In the 1960s he had an art gallery built in the city of Bielefeld , for which he won the American architect Philip Johnson . In the autumn of 1968 the art gallery was to be inaugurated under the name "Richard-Kaselowsky-Haus - Kunsthalle der Stadt Bielefeld". But there was resistance. Bielefeld's extra-parliamentary opposition protested against being named after a man who had been a member of Himmler's circle of friends . Church youth, sports clubs and scouts joined the protest. Oetker left it to the city council to correct the name, but they decided to keep the name "Kaselowsky House".

In the run-up to the inauguration of the Kunsthalle, to which 1200 guests and politicians were invited, there were many rejections, including the President of the Protestant Church Ernst Wilm and the Prime Minister Heinz Kühn along with his ministers. Kühn wrote in a letter that he did not consider it right to honor someone "who at least took part in supporting those who had a criminal effect on our people." Rudolf-August Oetker canceled the opening ceremony and wrote an open letter to the city in which he again justified the choice of the name. There it says, among other things: "that despite the political error that my father made, his merits in Bielefeld weighed heavier" The composer Hans Werner Henze , who had composed the opening music and then withdrew from the discussion, wrote in the newspaper Die Zeit , the outcome of the name dispute illustrates "almost clichéd the influence of industrial rule on the public concerns of the masses who depend on it."

Kidnapping of Richard Oetker

Richard Oetker , a son of the group leader, was kidnapped in December 1976 on his way home from the Technical University of Munich-Weihenstephan in Freising , locked in a box and seriously injured by an electric shock while being transported. Richard Oetker was released for the provision of ransom of DM 21 million  , a sum that at that time was the highest ransom demand in the history of Germany.

Development under Richard Oetker

At the beginning of 2010, August Oetker took over the chairmanship of the company's advisory board and handed over the management of Dr. Oetker GmbH to his brother Richard. Associated with this was the transfer of the function of the general partner of the group of companies as a limited partnership. Richard Oetker's term of office ended at the end of 2016. His successor in the group management was the previous CFO of the Oetker Group, Albert Christmann, which is the first time that a person from outside the family has managed the Oetker Group.

Division of the Oetker Group

In July 2021, the owners announced that they would split the Oetker Group into two independent groups. Alfred, Carl Ferdinand and Julia Johanna Oetker took over the Henkell & Co. Sektkellerei , Martin Braun Backmittel KG, the Budenheim chemical factory and the August Oetker art collection, while Richard and Philip Oetker, Rudolf Louis Schweizer, Markus von Luttitz and Ludwig Graf took over Douglas will lead the Radeberger Group .

Structure of the Oetker Group

Corporate structure

The Oetker Group consists of more than 400 companies in various industries and has total assets of around EUR 10 billion (2019). They are divided into four business areas.

Organizational chart of the Oetker Group

Oetker Group
food	Beer and soft drinks	Sparkling wine, wine and spirits	Other interests
Dr. Oetker GmbH Coppenrath & Wiese Martin Braun Group	Radeberger Group KG	Henkell & Co. Sektkellerei KG	Chemical factory Budenheim Oetker Collection Dr. August Oetker financing and investment company OEDIV Oetker Daten- und Informationsverarbeitung KG

food

The food division includes both the Dr. Oetker as well as several companies working in the bulk consumer business: Dr. Oetker Professional, Martin Braun , Agrano and Eto . In 1995 Oetker took over Opekta , then in 2015 Coppenrath & Wiese . The annual turnover of the food division totaled around 3.9 billion euros in 2019. The top-selling product in the food sector is no longer baking powder, but frozen pizza .

Beer and soft drinks

The business area beer and non-alcoholic beverages is controlled by the Radeberger Group . Well-known brands such as Radeberger Pilsner , Ur-Krostitzer , Jever , Freiberger , Sternburg (brewery: Leipzig), Allgäuer Brauhaus (brewery: Leuterschach near Marktoberdorf, administration: Kempten), Hasen-Bräu , Schöfferhofer Weizen , Tucher Bräu , Brinkhoff's and other Dortmund beers, Wicküler , Schlösser , Binding , Gilden, Küppers, Kurfürsten , Sion , Sester , Berliner Pilsner and Selters (which should not be confused with the Selterswasser from Niederselters). The turnover of this business area totaled more than 1.7 billion euros in 2019. At the beginning of 2008, the Radeberger Group took over the beverage wholesaler Essmann-Getränke from Lingen (Ems) .

Sparkling wine, wine and spirits

Henkell Freixenet is the lead company in the sparkling wine, wine and spirits division. The sparkling wine brands Henkell Trocken , Freixenet , Fürst von Metternich, Deinhard and the spirits brands Wodka Gorbatschow , Kuemmerling and Pott Rum are just a few of the brands in this division, which has sales of around 1.04 billion euros (2019).

Other interests

The Oetker Group also includes the Chemische Fabrik Budenheim and the Oetker Collection with some hotels in the upper price segment such as the Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa in Baden-Baden and the Le Bristol in Paris . The “Other Interests” division achieved total sales of over EUR 759 million in 2019.

Corporate governance

The Oetker Group is managed by Dr. August Oetker KG is centrally controlled, but managed in a decentralized manner. The two-person group management, consisting of the personally liable partner Albert Christmann (responsible for the areas of food; beer and non-alcoholic beverages; sparkling wine, wine and spirits; Oetker Digital; corporate communications) and the general manager Heino Schmidt (responsible for the Other interests, banking, finance, controlling, law and taxes).

The management holding company Dr. August Oetker KG has an advisory board , the majority of which do not belong to the shareholder family and which exercises the advisory, control and veto functions.

Shareholders

The Oetker Group is a family company. Rudolf-August Oetker divided the inheritance of the group equally among his seven children.

• Ludwig Graf Douglas, Frankfurt am Main, 14.286% share
• Alfred Oetker, Bielefeld, 14.286% share
• Carl Ferdinand Oetker , Bielefeld, 14.286% share
• Richard Oetker , Bielefeld, 14.286% share
• Rudolf Louis Schweizer, Murrhardt, 14.286% share
• Markus von Luttitz, Munich, 14.285% share
• Julia Johanna Oetker, Bielefeld, 14.285% share

Locations

View of today's Bielefeld company premises

Oetker produces under its own name at the following locations worldwide:

Germany

The first factories were built in Bielefeld before the turn of the century, but Oetker expanded as early as the 1930s and opened another location in nearby Oerlinghausen . Other locations are today: Wittenburg in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , Wittlich in Rhineland-Palatinate , Moers in North Rhine-Westphalia and Ettlingen in Baden-Württemberg . All domestic plants have been environmentally certified since the end of 2010.

International

• In France there are the Schirmeck and Strasbourg locations .
• The Italian plant is in Desenzano .
• In Poland, Oetker is represented in the locations Łebcz and Płock .
• In Hungary, Oetker can be found in Jánossomorja , in the Czech Republic in Kladno .
• In Austria, Oetker can be found in Villach .
• There are other plants in Romania and Brazil.

Historical group components

The group's beer business used to be largely bundled with the Bank für Brau-Industrie , which was merged into the group's own Bankhaus Lampe in 1998 . The consolidated balance sheet total of Bankhaus Lampe was around EUR 3.1 billion in 2017. The Condor insurance company , whose premium income amounted to well over EUR 300 million, belonged to the Oetker Group until September 2008 , after which it was sold to R + V Versicherung . In March 2020, Bankhaus Lampe was sold to the Frankfurt private bank Hauck & Aufhäuser .

The largest division of the Oetker Group has traditionally been the Shipping division , which primarily comprised the Hamburg Süd shipping group . The Brazilian shipping company Aliança was also part of the division and had a 30% stake in the new Tecon Santa Catarina container terminal in Itapoá in the state of Santa Catarina . The division achieved sales of over EUR 5.6 billion in 2016. 80% of the turnover was achieved in container services in north-south and south-north traffic, and 20% in tramp shipping . Oetker parted ways with the shipping division and sold Hamburg Süd to Maersk on November 30, 2017 .

Under the name of Dr. August Oetker finanz- und Beteiligungs-GmbH , Douglas Holding AG was managed until 2012 .

environmental Protection

The company states that it basically wants to implement the environmental standards achieved in Germany in the foreign locations as well. In 1995 August Oetker was voted “ Eco Manager of the Year ”. The company has been issuing an environmental report on a regular basis since 1994, followed by sustainability reports in 2004. In 2010 all domestic plants were certified according to the environmental criteria.

public perception

Logo of the Dr. Oetker

When the first competitors appeared at the turn of the century, eight years after the first sale of Backin baking powder, Oetker used a company logo that included the popular slogan “A bright head only uses Dr. Oetker's baking powder ”. The red and white Hellkopf, silhouette of the daughter of a graphic artist, is supposed to signal quality and brand loyalty to unknown competitors.

Public criticism

Political influence

Oetker is one of the food groups that are campaigning against the introduction of a “food traffic light”, which consumer associations, health insurance companies, doctors and health politicians have been calling for for many years.

animal cruelty

The Albert Schweitzer Foundation for Our Environment criticized the food company for tolerating animal cruelty in the chickens whose meat ends up on the company's frozen pizzas. A few weeks later, Dr. Oetker will only buy chicken meat for its products sold in Europe from 2026 at the latest that meets the criteria of the European broiler chicken requirement.

sexism

An advertising campaign by the company in Switzerland for the 2018 World Cup triggered a shit storm due to allegations of sexism .

Deceptive packaging, advertising promises, quality

A muesli from Dr. Oetker won the annual “Sham Pack of the Year” award for 2017. In 2016, the ARD “ Brand Check ” checked how much Dr. Oetker and took a close look at popular products. The overall verdict was: “The trust in Dr. Oetker is blind. ”The consumer advocates from Öko-Test tested, among other things. in 2015 products from Dr. Oetker and rated it clearly negative.

Investment in defense companies

Members of the Oetker family temporarily invested from 2015 to spring 2016 in the Elektroniksystem- und Logistik-GmbH , a systems and software house that mainly operates in the armaments sector.

Dr. Oetker world

In 2005, the Dr. Oetker world . In the building, which was put into operation in 1914, production continued until 2001; in 2005 it was rebuilt using the old structure. The permanent exhibition designed by TRIAD Berlin shows the history and products of the family company. Among other things, historical finds from the family archive are exhibited. Other topics are brands and advertising.

Social and cultural engagement

The Oetker family and the company donated the Rudolf-Oetker-Halle , built in 1930, and financed the construction of the Bielefelder Kunsthalle, which opened in 1968. The Oetker ice rink in Bielefeld also goes back to the Oetker family.

The Rudolf August Oetker Foundation supports projects in culture, art, science and the environment. The Ida and Richard Kaselowsky Foundation is geared towards social and charitable purposes. Oetker has entered into a long-term collaboration with the SOS Children's Villages .

literature

• Rüdiger Jungbluth : The Oetkers. Business and secrets of the most famous economic dynasty in Germany. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-593-37396-3 ; Bastei Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 2008, ISBN 978-3-404-61594-0 .
• Jürgen Finger, Sven Keller, Andreas Wirsching : Dr. Oetker and National Socialism. History of a family business 1933–1945. Verlag CHBeck, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-64545-7 .
• Jürgen Finger, Sven Keller: Receipt as a success. Richard Kaselowsky at the helm of the family business Dr. Oetker . In: Werner Plumpe (Ed.): Entrepreneurs - facts and fictions. Historical-biographical studies . (Writings of the Historical College, Colloquia 88), Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-486-71352-7 ( digitized version ).
• Jürgen Finger, Sven Keller: The Bielefelder Kunsthallenstreit 1968. Patronage, memory and the Nazi past in the Oetker house . In: Jörg Osterloh, Harald Wixforth (ed.): Entrepreneurs and Nazi crimes. Business ropes in the “Third Reich” and in the Federal Republic . (Scientific series of the Fritz Bauer Institute 23) Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2004 and New York 2014, ISBN 978-3-593-39979-9 .
• Milestones of a brand . Dr. Oetker Verlag, Bielefeld 2010, ISBN 978-3-7670-0791-8 .
• Jesko Dahlmann: Innovative entrepreneurship in the sense of Schumpeter: theory and economic history. Metropolis Verlag, Marburg 2017, ISBN 3-7316-1313-1 , p. 192 ff.

Movie

• The Oetkers. Documentary, Germany, 2010, 45 min., Script and director: Manfred Oldenburg, production: WDR , series: Deutsche Dynastien, first broadcast: ARD , November 15, 2010

Web links

Commons : Dr. August Oetker  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website of the Oetker Group

Individual evidence

Rüdiger Jungbluth: The Oetkers, shops and secrets of the most famous economic dynasty in Germany . 1st edition. Bastei Lübbe paperback, Bergisch Gladbach 2006, ISBN 978-3-422-02112-9 .

1. ↑ page 51
2. ↑ ^{a b} page 52
3. ↑ page 61
4. ↑ page 68
5. ↑ page 64
6. ↑ page 66
7. ↑ page 85
8. ↑ page 101
9. ↑ page 112
10. ↑ page 118
11. ↑ page 137
12. ↑ page 143.
13. ↑ page 149
14. ↑ page 156
15. ↑ page 164
16. ↑ page 175
17. ↑ page 221
18. ↑ page 185
19. ↑ page 247
20. ↑ page 248

Other:

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Press release for the 2019 financial year oetker-gruppe.de, accessed on June 16, 2020
2. ↑ The 1,000 largest family businesses in 2018 .
3. ^ German Patent and Trademark Office : Register information Backin.
4. ↑ At that time there were numerous such renaming, see Adolf Hitler as the namesake of streets and squares
5. ↑ so Oswald Pohl , head of the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office after the war at the Nuremberg trials .
6. ^ Die Linke in Bielefeld: Taken from: Province under the swastika. Dictatorship and resistance in Ostwestfalen-Lippe . Edited by Wolfgang Ehmer, Uwe Horst, Helga Schuler-Jung, AJZ-Verlag Bielefeld 1984, pp. 153-164, accessed July 16, 2012.
7. ↑ Daniela Rüther: The "Nutritional Value" case. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2020.
8. ↑ ^{a b} Verbrechen der Wirtschaft, Oetker , accessed in July 2012.
9. ↑ ^{a b} Oetker National Socialism , Die Zeit, January 25, 2012 edition.
10. ↑ Book - Dr. Oetker and National Socialism , chbeck.de, accessed on November 10, 2013
11. ↑ Official statement on the review of the company's history by Dr. Oetker in National Socialism , oetker.de
12. ↑ Review by Tim Schanetzky ( Hsozukult ).
13. ↑ Stefan Weber: In the shadow of the patriarch. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , October 19, 2013, p. 25
14. ↑ August Oetker: "My father was a National Socialist", accessed on March 18, 2019
15. ↑ The Pudding Prince. In: Der Spiegel December 18, 1957. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
16. ↑ At anchor , Der Spiegel 36/1970.
17. ^ Website D'Gari .
18. ^ Company history ( Memento from September 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), website of the Oetker Group. Retrieved July 16, 2012
19. ↑ Oetker Group: Advisory Board decides to succeed Richard Oetker, December 12, 2016 ( Memento of February 9, 2018 in the Internet Archive ).
20. ↑ For the first time no Oetker at the top of the Oetker. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine December 12, 2016. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
21. ↑ https://www.oetker-gruppe.de/Oetker-Group/press-releases-de/2021_07_22_Presseinformation_Oetker-Gruppe.pdf
22. ↑ WORLD: Dr. Oetker is split up after the family quarrel . In: THE WORLD . July 22, 2021 ( welt.de [accessed July 23, 2021]).
23. ↑ Dr. Oetker is smashed ( German ) Cricinfo. July 22, 2021. Accessed July 23, 2021.
24. ↑ Bielefeld Oetker Group is divided ( German ) WDR. July 22, 2021. Accessed July 23, 2021.
25. ↑ Background information from the Oetker Group ( Memento from April 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) PDF brochure, accessed July 16, 2012
26. ↑ Dr. Oetker buys Coppenrath and Wiese, faz.net, accessed on September 4, 2015
27. ↑ PE investors reach for Coppenrath & Wiese. from: www.finance-magazin.de , January 9, 2015, accessed on January 16, 2015.
28. ↑ oetker-gruppe.de: Management structure
29. ↑ oetker-gruppe.de: Advisory Board
30. ^ Oetker feud: No end in sight Die Presse February 6, 2014
31. ↑ the media manager is a son of Bergit Countess Douglas from her first marriage to Christoph von Luttitz, he took over the share from his uncle Christian Oetker in January 2019
32. ^ Georg Winters: Dr. Oetker sells Bankhaus Lampe to the Chinese. In: Rheinische Post RP Online. March 5, 2020, accessed March 7, 2020.
33. ↑ In the 2017 financial year, the shipping division was taken into account until November 30, 2017, the date of deconsolidation. See: Portrait and key figures oetker-gruppe.de, accessed on August 24, 2019
34. ↑ Oetker seals the exit from Douglas , at www.handelsblatt.com , accessed on January 24, 2017.
35. ↑ "Ökomanager des Jahres": The award winners , WWF Germany (PDF file; 30 kB).
36. ↑ The Markenlexikon , accessed on 16 July 2012 found.
37. ↑ Dr. August Oetker KG , lobbypedia.de, accessed on November 3, 2018.
38. ↑ "Qualfleisch" on frozen pizzas , taz.de, September 28, 2018.
39. ↑ For more animal welfare: Dr. Oetker is systematically changing the procurement of chicken , oetker.de, November 14, 2018
40. ↑ European broiler demand , food-progress.de, published May 27, 2018, accessed on November 20, 2018
41. ↑ Dr. Oetker wants to switch completely to animal welfare poultry by 2026 , topagrar.com, November 14, 2018
42. ↑ Completely outdated image of women Dr. Oetker triggers Shitstorm with advertising , berliner-zeitung.de, June 8, 2018.
43. ↑ https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/heute/-mogelpackung-des-jahres--kritik-an-muesli-von-dr--oetker-100.html ( Memento from April 16, 2019 in the Internet Archive )
44. ↑ The Dr. Oetker-Check , daserste.de, May 9, 2016.
45. ↑ Öko-Test tears down Dr. Oetker , manager-magazin.de, December 30, 2015.
46. ↑ Cake, yogurt - fighter jets! Oetker clan buys armaments company , focus.de, September 18, 2015.
47. ↑ Reference from the architects Ackermann und Raff, Tübingen , accessed on April 10, 2018.
48. ↑ Reference of the TRIAD agency , accessed on April 10, 2018.
49. ↑ Dr. Oetker Welt , website of the Oetker Group, accessed on April 10, 2018.
50. ↑ Corporate responsibility of the Oetker-Holding company brochure, accessed on July 16, 2012.

Coordinates: 52 ° 0 ′ 54 ″  N , 8 ° 31 ′ 15 ″  E