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The Week in Germany: Business and Technology January 12, 2007 Rudolf August Oetker, the head of one of Germany's biggest family-owned business concerns, died on Tuesday at the age of 90 Your TWIG editors noted with sadness this week the passing of a man whose name graced their cereal and frozen pizza boxes for years: Rudolf August Oetker. Oetker transformed his family's baking power company into a post-World War II conglomerate employing 23,000 people, with operations in food, shipping, hotels and breweries. One of Germany's richest men, Oetker died in a Hamburg clinic, a company spokesman said. Dubbed the "pudding king" in Germany's popular press, he took over the running of Dr August Oetker KG from his stepfather in 1944 and remained in charge until 1981. Under his leadership the regional baking power manufacturer diversified into the food sector, later taking over breweries, a bank, a chemical company, hotel chain and shipping operations. In 2005 the concern had an annual turnover of 7 million euros (9.1 million dollars). Oetker, who had eight children from three marriages, became an avid collector of art after his retirement and donated an art gallery to his home city of Bielefeld. One of his sons, Richard, was kidnapped in 1976 and held captive in a small wooden box for two days until his family paid a ransom of 21 million marks (13.6 million dollars). (TWIG, dpa) |
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