Rudolf August Oetker
Rudolf August Oetker | |
|---|---|
National Socialist German Workers' Party (1930s–1945) | |
| Children | Richard Oetker |
| Relatives | August Oetker (grandfather) Richard Kaselowsky (stepfather) |
Rudolf August Oetker (20 September 1916 – 16 January 2007) was a German entrepreneur and former member of the
Biography
Early life
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]
Career
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]
Personal life
Oetker married three times and had eight children.[8] 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:[2]
- Rosely Schweizer
- August Oetker
- Bergit Douglas
- Christian Oetker
- Richard Oetker
- Alfred Oetker
- Carl Ferdinand Oetker
- Julia 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.[9] In 2019 a painting by Carl Spitzweg was restituted to the heirs of Leo Bendel who had been looted and murdered by Nazis.[10] The painting had been acquired through the Galerie Heinemann in Munich.[11]
See also
- Dr. Oetker
- Oetker Collection
- Colnaghi (Oetker's property in 1981)
References
- ^ Ignatzi, Christian (22 October 2013). "Another German company reveals its Nazi past". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
- ^ a b de Jong, David (3 February 2014). "Nazi-Forged Fortune Creates Hidden German Billionaires". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
- ^ "German pizza giant Dr Oetker reveals Nazi-era past". BBC News. 18 October 2013. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
- ^ "Dr. Oetker". Holocaust Online. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
- ^ "The Rudolf-August Oetker collection compensates the Emma Budge heirs for a silver cup in the Oetker collection since 2009". Lootedart.com. 19 May 2017. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
In 2011, the representative of the estate of Emma Budge published a search notice for the silver cup on a database for artworks lost in consequence of Nazi persecution.
- ^ Jürgen Finger, Sven Keller, Andreas Wirsching: Dr. Oetker und der Nationalsozialismus. Geschichte eines Familienunternehmens 1933–1945. Verlag C.H.Beck, München 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-64545-7, S. 380
- HUMO(in Dutch). Retrieved 28 October 2023.
- ^ a b "Rudolf August Oetker & family". Forbes. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
- ^ Hinckley, Catherine (14 March 2017). "German Art Collectors Face a Painful Past: Do I Own Nazi Loot?". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
- ^ "Kunstsammlung Rudolf-August Oetker gibt Gemälde von Carl Spitzweg an die Nachkommen des jüdischen Sammlers Leo Bendel zurück" (PDF).
- ^ K.d.ö.R, Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland (20 November 2019). "Dr. Oetker gibt Bild an jüdische Eigentümer zurück". Jüdische Allgemeine (in German). Retrieved 3 April 2021.
- 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. Archived from the original on 13 March 2005.
- "Is Dr Oetker really sincere about facing up to its Nazi past?". TVinemedia. 18 January 2014.
- 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.
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