Philippe Dollinger attended the Gymnasium Fustel de Coulanges.
He was a pupil of Marc Bloch, Charles-Edmond Perrin and Lucien Febvre.
From 1932 until 1934 he worked at the Institut francais in Berlin and in the Bavarian Archives.
In 1945 Dolliner became professor of Alsatian history at the University of Strasbourg and became leader of the "Institut des hautes études alsaciennes".
In 1947 he received his doctorate at the University of Strasbourg with the work L'évolution des classes rurales en Bavière depuis la fin de l'époque carolingienne jusqu'au milieu du treizième siècle.