In 1846 he moved to Munich and received his technical and artistic education at the Polytechnical Institute and the Academy of Fine Arts.
In 1854 he entered the service of the Royal Bavarian State Railways, where he was concerned with building construction such as the modification of the station in Gemünden am Main.
His first significant independent work was the neo-Gothic Church of the Holy Cross in Giesing (now part of Munich), which was built 1866–1883.
Between 1870 and 1872 he expanded the hunting house in Linderhof by a U-shaped building complex, whose centre was the stately bedroom.
From December 1868 till September 1873, Dollmann presented seventeen different floor plans and numerous front elevations as well as many drawings of the bedroom.