Thanks to clever marketing of ten-penny baking powder sachets and early diversification, August Oetker's pharmacy became one of Germany's largest companies in 130 years. After the Oetker Group was split up in the summer of 2021, its future is open.

The year 1891 promises to be a good one. On January 1, 29-year-old pharmacist Dr. August Oetker takes over the "Aschoff'sche Apotheke" at Niedernstrasse 3 in Bielefeld, having borrowed the money from his mother-in-law and the bank. His wife, Karoline, supported the natural scientist and son of a master baker and took care of their two-year-old son Rudolf. August Oetker promised "to serve everyone who honors my bakery with his trust to the best of his ability. His first own formulations were a foot cream and a tincture of warmth.

Instead of working on other medicines, however, Oetker began tinkering with another ingredient in the pharmacy's annex. His cousin Louis Dohme, who lived in America, told him about "Professor Horsford's Phosphatic Baking Powder. The white powder, he said, was a tasteless baking agent guaranteed to make cake doughs rise - a standard in large American bakeries. Wouldn't that also be something for every housewife in Germany? The wonderfully reliable feeling that everything is guaranteed to succeed when baking.

Oetker experiments at the nearby Müller bakery on Obernstrasse. He fills the result into small paper bags measuring 9.6 cm by 5.4 cm. Each bag weighs 20 grams. That is exactly the amount of baking powder needed for 500 grams of flour. In 1893, "Backin" was launched on the market with "Gelingsicherheit. The new baking powder sells like hot cakes - for ten pfennigs, a price that is maintained for the next 70 years.

For the next few years, Oetker stuck to white powders. In 1894, portioned vanilla sugar and pudding powder were added, followed in 1898 by "Gustin" starch. On September 21, 1903, Oetker secured the trademark "Backin" "as a process for the production of durable baking powder or flour ready for baking" under patent specification number 144 289.

In 1906, Dr. Oetker sold the 24 millionth sachet of baking powder. He had long since left the pharmacy business behind and moved his "Factory for Chemical Preparations for the Kitchen and Household, Dr. A. Oetker," complete with 200 employees, to larger premises. Shortly before the First World War, 350 employees were looking after an annual production of 108 million units. Eduard and Louis, two of his nine siblings, joined the family business as department heads.

During the war, Oetker continues to increase sales. On the one hand through deliveries to the army, but above all through the call: "German housewives! From now on, buy only German Gustin instead of the English brand Mondamin, which had been widely used until then!"

When his son Rudolf, the designated successor, was killed in World War I, however, August Oetker lost the will to live. Richard Kaselowsky became the new husband of his widowed daughter-in-law Ida. He accepts the role of father to the newborn Richard-August and joins the family business. He successfully took over the reins when August Oetker died of a stroke on January 10, 1918. In 1944, the grandson took over the management of the company. He restructured it into four divisions: Food; Beer, Sparkling Wine, Wine and Non-Alcoholic Beverages; Chemicals; Hotel Business; and Finance. Rudolf August managed the Oetker Group until 1981.

There was no shortage of successors this time. When Rudolf August died in 2007, he left behind eight children from three marriages. But they had very different ideas about the future of the company. A dispute that lasted for years ended in the summer of 2021 with the division of the group, which employed around 37,000 people and generated sales of 7.3 billion euros. The five oldest children take over the food division, the three youngest the sparkling wine, wine, and spirits divisions and the art collection that has since been built up.

August Oetker laid the foundations for their prosperity 130 years ago - and did so as he wrote in point 7 of his 1908 company commandments: "Usually a good idea is enough, and the man is made." ®

Author: Jennifer Holleis