Dr. Oetker in Bielefeld - For 125 years we are calling the Lutterstreet our home

The first factory of Dr. Oetker

In 1891, Dr. August Oetker opened his pharmacy at Niedernstraße 3 in Bielefeld. There he developed his first baking powder Bakin and began selling the first products for faster and easier cooking. The demand exceeded the production capacity of the small pharmacy quickly and Dr. Oetker moved to a newly build factory on Lutterstreet in 1900. In 1912, the company opened a new baking powder factory, where vanilla sugar and preserving aids were also produced. Two years later, the pudding powder factory was opened directly on the opposite side, where pudding powder was produced. The two upper floors of the building housed filling and mixing rooms and in the attic raw materials were stored.

Over the next few years, the company premises around Lutterstreet, Steinmetzstreet, and Scharnhorststeet were expanded with new buildings, resulting in a total of 14 buildings on the site by the 1940s. Offices for administration, management and marketing, among other things, were housed in these buildings, particularly in the main building, where the company director, Dr. August Oetker, had his office until 1918. In addition, there were workshops, a laundry, a sewing and an ironing room - as well as guest houses. The social services department that had rooms for medical examinations was located on the Robert Bunsenstreet which lays opposite to the Lutterstreet. Several buildings were also used for paper processing, to manufacture bags and folding boxes. Of course, there were also various locations for storing materials or products and manufacturing rooms. Unusual today, but normal at the time: the premises also included stables that could accommodate up to ten horses.

Dr. Oetker in Bielefeld-Brackwede

In 1925, Dr. Oetker took over parts of the former spinning mill site “Vorwärts” ["Forward"] in Brackwede in order to use the existing rail connection for the shipping of their products. The site was also used for additional storage space and the production of packaging materials as well as housing offices. Today, it is home to the Brackwede production facility, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. You can find more about the development of the site and what it means to work at Dr. Oetker, here:

The plant is changing

In 1936, a particularly visible change took place on the company premises. The three buildings on the Lutterstreet were demolished and rebuilt within a year. This allowed the buildings to be adapted to the needs of the company and its employees. The rebuild had larger and brighter rooms, which were carefully designed since daily tours of the premises were conducted as a promotional measure. The basement and ground floor housed cloakrooms and staff rooms, as well as lecture and demonstration rooms. The company kitchen and dining room were also located here. The dining room was initiated by Ida Kaselowski, since employees should receive one hot meal per day and not have to eat next to the machines. She also had a nursery set up on the company premises.

The first floor housed the company offices and workrooms for paper processing. One floor above were the machine rooms of the “essence department,” where baking flavors were produced. Under the roof was the chemical laboratory, additional offices, and the test kitchen, which still continues to develop recipes today. In addition to the renovation, the new building was connected to the pudding powder building by a two-story overpass across the Lutterstreet. The construction process was captured in photos and preserved in photo albums in the company archive, allowing us to take a look at the renovations today:

The bombing during World War II hit Bielefeld heavily, with large parts of the city being damaged or completely destroyed, particularly during the air raid on September 30, 1944. The factory on Lutterstreet was not spared from the attack either: many roofs burned down, the windows in most buildings had to be replaced, and parts of the construction were partially destroyed. The pudding powder factory was particularly hit hard: the entire roof and attic burned down, and the foundation was so badly damaged that one corner of the building sank.

In addition to the typical production, office, and storage rooms, there were also more unusual buildings on the company premises. In 1954, construction began on a bathhouse between Lutterstreet and Robert Bunsenstreet. Additionally to the pools, there were massage and gymnastics rooms, for which special bath attendants and masseurs were hired. With the opening of the bathhouse came a handy manual explaining to the employees how to use the facilities correctly and describing the health benefits of a sauna.

In 1962, four silos for the storage of sugar and starch were installed next to the parking lot on Lutterstreet. These were needed for the production in the pudding powder factory. The silos were used for almost 40 years until production moved completely to Brackwede. In June 2002, the large column was dismantled and the park in the center of the site was expanded on the free space.

The Dr. Oetker World

Then, in 2005, the next big change happened: the over 90-year-old pudding powder factory was renovated into the Dr. Oetker World. The building kept its distinctive shape and combined old with new: a new glass front was added between the old towers, allowing people to admire the pudding wonder from Arthur-Ladebeck-Street and the roadway, which was installed one year after the opening of the renovation. The Pudding Wonder is part of the Dr. Oetker World and actually provides freshly made pudding for visitors. More about the Dr. Oetker World and why you can even visit it in Hamburg, you can read here:

In addition to the Pudding Wonder, there is another eye-catcher that shapes the skyline of Bielefeld: the large logo on the roof of the administrative building next to the Dr. Oetker world. In 2007, the “floating” logo replaced a nine-meter-high tower that wore the brand logo on all four sides and was brightly lit. This was installed a few months after the opening of Dr. Oetker World in winter 2005 and weighed 30 tons. Today's model, on the other hand, weighs only a tenth of that and can rotate.

Fun fact: thanks to an electric motor, the bright head logo can make 1 ½ complete rotations per minute!

Not only the building itself, but also the area in front of the pudding
powder factory has changed. The two-meter-deep concrete surface, which previously housed a parking lot, was demolished and unsealed. This allows rainwater to seep back into the ground and become groundwater. In 2009, a wheat field was planted on the site to remind us of one of the basis of food production: grain. Since 2015, there has been a 300 m² flower field on the site where employees can pick their own colorful bouquets for a good purpose.

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