He studied agronomy and brewing at the Technical University of Munich and has held various positions at Dr. Oetker since 1981, the year his father retired as CEO.
On 14 December 1976, the 25-year-old student was kidnapped by 34-year-old Dieter Zlof, a Slovene-born mechanic who locked him into a crate and linked his feet and wrists to manacles that would give him electric shocks if he screamed or tried to break out.
[4] In the early hours of 15 December, a noise sparked off a near fatal shock that broke Oetker's thighs and two of his ribs as he thumped against the crate.
In May 1997, Zlof, who had buried the ransom in a forest around 30 km (20 miles) southeast of Munich, went to England to swap mouldy banknotes worth DM12.5 million for usable money.
It stars Sebastian Koch as Richard Oetker, Tobias Moretti as investigator Helmut Bauer (who the script renames Georg Kufbach), and Christoph Waltz as Dieter Cilov.