August Oetker

{{Short description|German inventor, food scientist and businessman (1862–1918)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = August Oetker

| image = File:Paul Emil Gabel - Dr August Oetker.jpg

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| birth_date = January 6, 1862

| birth_place = Obernkirchen, Schaumburg, Electorate of Hesse

| death_date = {{d-da|January 10, 1918|January 6, 1862}}

| death_place = Bielefeld, Westphalia, Germany

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| occupation = {{hlist|Food scientist|businessman}}

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| relatives = Rudolf August Oetker (grandson)

| family = Oetker family

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August Oetker ({{IPA|de|ˈaʊɡʊst ˈʔœtkɐ}}; January 6, 1862 – January 10, 1918) was a German inventor, food scientist and business person. He is known as the creator of baking powder as a ready-to-use product, and also as the founder of the Dr. Oetker company.{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/07/30/dr-oetker-frozen-pizza-empire-sliced-warring-heirs/|title=Dr Oetker frozen pizza empire sliced up between warring heirs|first=Justin|last=Huggler|date=July 30, 2021|via=www.telegraph.co.uk}} He was the patriarch of the Oetker family.

Biography

=Early life=

Oetker was born on January 6, 1862, in Obernkirchen, Electorate of Hesse, the oldest of eight children, to August Adolph Oetker (1834–1890) and Bertha Oetker (née Westphal; 1836–1902). He completed a doctoral thesis on the shape of pollen grains in 1888.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/48724076|title=the road to Lennart von Post|author=de Klerk, Pim|year=2018|journal=Vegetation History and Archaeobotany|volume=27|issue=2|pages=393–409}}

=Career=

In 1891, he bought the Aschoffsche pharmacy in Bielefeld and developed a baking agent, which was designed to ensure the success of the baking process. Prior to Oetker, a British chemist, Alfred Bird, had already invented baking powder, and American scientist Eben Norton Horsford 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.