Richard Kaselowsky (14 August 1888 – 30 September 1944) was a German entrepreneur, industrialist, manager of Dr. Oetker, and member of the Nazi Party and Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft.
He was the eldest son of the manufacturer Richard Kaselowsky, a deputy in the Prussian state parliament.
[8] Kaselowsky maintained close ties to the Nazi movement, and donated a total of 80,000 Reichsmarks to Heinrich Himmler, who used this money for various causes "outside the budget", such as funding the Ahnenerbe, which conducted Aryan historical and eugenicist research.
[9] Dr. Oetker became one of the first German businesses to be declared a "National Socialist model company".
[10] On 30 September 1944, during an American air raid on Bielefeld, Kaselowsky and his family took shelter in a bunker which had been built in the basement of his villa.
[1] After the bombing raid, Kaselowsky's stepson, Rudolf August Oetker, who was serving in the Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front, was allowed to return home and take over the company.
Dr. Oetker became one of the symbols of the post-World War II recovery effort in the country.
While the Oetker family emphasized his role as a father and successful entrepreneur and described him as a victim of the war, others criticized his involvement in the regime, something which the company had ignored.
Today, the Ida and Richard Kaselowsky Foundation, set up by the Oetker family, promotes social and charitable causes.
The renaming of the street, on which Kaselowsky's villa stood, to Kaselowskystrasse, which took place on the occasion of Rudolf August Oetker's 85th birthday in 2001, led to protests.