He was the son of Isaak August Dorner. After studying at Berlin and acting as Repetent at Göttingen (1870-1873), he became professor of theology and coadirector of the theological seminary at Wittenberg. Amongst his works is Augustinus, sein theologisches System und seine religionsphilosoph. Anschauung (1873), and he is the author of the article on Isaac Dorner in the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie