Robert Doms, Lemberg (Lvov)

History

Company was established in ~1848.

Robert Doms (*1815, †1893), originally from Prussia, came to Lviv around 1848. He was the first to establish a coffee and liquor manufactory. Soon after, he expanded and established a rum, liqueur and chicory manufactory. At the same time, he began to engage in industrial brewing, which became one of the two pillars of Doms' future financial empire. The second one was the oil industry.

Doms' undoubted success contributed to his growing popularity in economic circles of Lviv and Eastern Galicia. As a result, in 1865 he was elected by the members of the Lviv Chamber of Commerce as director of the local branch of the Austrian National Bank.

He was also active in the National Industrial Association with its headquarters in Lviv, which was set up, among other things, to promote Galician manufacturing. As a sign of the highest appreciation of Doms' work, he was elected vice president of the most important economic organisation in Lviv: the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He held this position from 1869 to 1880.

Doms died on 4 May 1893 from pneumonia. The funeral of this distinguished industrialist and philanthropist was attended by crowds of Lviv citizens. In honour of the contribution made by Doms to the city, where he lived for almost half a century, the Lviv City Council named a street after him two years after his death. The name survived until 1940, when the Soviet occupiers changed it.