August Oetker (; January 6, 1862 – January 10, 1918) was a German inventor,

food scientist Food science (or bromatology) is the basic science and applied science of food; its scope starts at overlap with agricultural science and nutritional science and leads through the scientific aspects of food safety and food processing, informing ...

and business person. He is known as the creator of

baking powder Baking powder is a dry chemical leavening agent, a mixture of a carbonate or bicarbonate and a weak acid. The base and acid are prevented from reacting prematurely by the inclusion of a buffer such as cornstarch. Baking powder is used to increas ...

as a ready-to-use product, and also as the founder of the

Dr. Oetker Dr. Oetker () is a German multinational company that produces baking powder, cake mixes, Pizza#Preparation, frozen pizza, pudding, cake decoration, cornflakes, birthday candles, beer, and various other products. The company is a wholly owned b ...

company. He was the patriarch of the Oetker family.

Biography

Early life

Oetker was born on January 6, 1862, in

Obernkirchen Obernkirchen () is a town in the district of Schaumburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 8 km southwest of Stadthagen, and 15 km east of Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of Nort ...

Electorate of Hesse The Electorate of Hesse (), also known as Hesse-Kassel or Kurhessen, was the title used for the former Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel after an 1803 reform where the Holy Roman Emperor elevated its ruler to the rank of Elector, thus giving him ...

, the oldest of eight children, to August Adolph Oetker (1834–1890) and Bertha Oetker (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Westphal; 1836–1902). He completed a doctoral thesis on the shape of

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by most types of flowers of seed plants for the purpose of sexual reproduction. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced Gametophyte#Heterospory, microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm ...

grains in 1888.

Career

In 1891, he bought the Aschoffsche pharmacy in

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region () of Detmold (region), Detmold and the L ...

and developed a baking agent, which was designed to ensure the success of the baking process. Prior to Oetker, a British chemist,

Alfred Bird Alfred Bird (1811 – 15 December 1878) was an English food manufacturer and chemist. He was born in Nympsfield, Gloucestershire, England in 1811Baptised 25 August 1811 in Nympsfield, Gloucester, England. Parents John and Mary. International ...

, had already invented baking powder, and American scientist

Eben Norton Horsford Eben Norton Horsford (July 27, 1818 – January 1, 1893) was an American scientist who taught agricultural chemistry in the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard from 1847 to 1863. Later he was known for his reformulation of baking powder, his i ...

had developed a ready-made 'double-acting' baking powder. From 1890, he distributed his invention under the brand name ''Backin'', thus laying the basis for the family-owned company, called Oetker-Gruppe. The company still uses the very same recipe to produce baking powder. On September 21, 1909, Oetker filed a patent for his ''Procedure for making long-lasting baking powder or ready-to-bake flour''. Due to successful marketing, his products sold quite well and soon the old pharmacy had turned into a successful company. In 1900, Oetker built his first manufacturing plant and, by 1906, had sold 50 million packages of Backin.

Death and legacy

Oetker died on January 10, 1918, in

, Germany. Later, his grandson,

Rudolf August Oetker 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, int ...

, took over the company. Motto: ("A bright mind always uses Oetker").

References

External links