After his stepfather, Richard Kaselowsky, was killed in an air raid, Oetker became the president of his family-run business in 1944.

The business was inherited from his grandfather, August Oetker, who invented a popular mixture of baking powder.

[6] In 1960s, Oetker funded Stille Hilfe, a relief organization for the SS veterans, fugitives, and convicted war criminals.

They had four children; On 8 February 1963, Oetker married Marianne (Maja) von Malaisé (born 1934), of nobility.

[2] After discovering Oetker's Nazi past, his children hired a provenance researcher to investigate the origins of his art collection.