Dornbusch was born near Trieste on 12 August 1819 and moved to Hamburg at the age of seven. Adopting a strict vegan lifestyle in 1843, he later relocated to London in 1845, where he married Johanna Wilhelmine Amalie in 1846 and had two children before their divorce in 1865; he married and had three further children with Emma Wallis. A prosperous merchant, Dornbusch operated a business on Threadneedle Street and published The Floating Cargoes Daily List from 1854 to 1873. Surviving a near-fatal stabbing in 1865, he became a leading member of the early vegetarian movement, co-founding the Vegetarian Society, and participating in many several societies for various causes. Dornbusch died from bronchitis on 5 February 1873 and was buried in Abney Park Cemetery, London.
Georg Dornbusch[note 1] was born near Trieste, then part of the Austrian Empire, on 12 August 1819. When he was seven years old, his family moved to Hamburg, where he grew up; his father worked for the Swedish-Norwegian post office.[1]
Dornbusch became a vegan in 1843, "partaking neither of fish, flesh, fowl, butter, milk, cheese, or eggs, and abstaining also from the use of tea, coffee, intoxicating drinks, salt, and tobacco",[2]Francis William Newman also described him as abstaining from, "every form of vegetable grease or oil, from the chief vegetable spices, such as pepper and ginger, and emphatically from salt."[3]
Dornbusch moved to England from Hamburg in 1845, where he settled in London.[4] In December 1846, he married Johanna Wilhelmine Amalie Siemers, the daughter of a Hamburg merchant. This marriage, which ended in divorce, in 1865, produced two children.[1] Dornbusch later married Emma Wallis, his former housekeeper,[note 2] and they had three children.
As a prosperous merchant, Dornbusch operated a business on Threadneedle Street in the City of London. His business published The Floating Cargoes Daily List, a private daily trade list detailing the arrival of cargoes from across the globe;[7] the list was published from 1854 to 1873.[8] On 23 December 1865, a business rival attempted to murder him.[9] He suffered 23 stab wounds and although he recovered and returned to work, he was permanently disabled.[1]
Dornbusch became a leading member of the vegetarian movement in London.[4] He named his house "Vegetarian Cottage",[4] and was one of the first members of the Vegetarian Society;[10] Dornbusch served as its secretary.[11] In 1866, along with his daughter Ada, from his first marriage, and his second wife, he signed an 1866 petition for women's suffrage.[4]
