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Orphaned at the age of 13, he had to drop out of school and work for a famous textile company, "Tauski", in Bratislava. He settled in Timişoara in 1910. In addition to a tailor's shop for ladies (Eugen Dornhelm & Iosif Heves), his first textile store was on King Ferdinand Blvd. (now Victoriei Square), in Dornhelm Palace. In 1929, the year of the financial crisis, when the Romanian state decided to cancel the debts of the companies to the foreign companies, Eugen Dornhelm still paid his debts. As a reward, a textile company from Manchester granted him the exclusive right to sell fabrics, and Dornhelm distributed the goods in stores in Timisoara and other cities in Banat. The Dornhelms lived in a villa designed by architect László Székely, Mihai Viteaul Blvd. no. 13. Daughter Magdalena and her family moved to Victoria Palace, Republicii Blvd. no. 1, which, according to the testimonies of contemporaries and from communiqués of the City Hall, was known as Dornhelm Palace in the interwar period. On the ground floor was the wholesale textile store Socotex.

Anti-Jewish legislation put an end to the family business. The "Socotex" store, spread over a large area, was set on fire by members of the Iron Guard, then "Romanianized". After the establishment of the communist regime, in 1948, the "Palace" building (Dauerbach Palace), the Victoria / Dornhelm Palace, the family villa, as well as other properties, were nationalized. E. Dornhelm and his son, Andreas, were sentenced to two years in prison and forced labor on the Danube-Black Sea Canal. Dornhelm even lost his money at a Swiss bank, recovering part of it in 1967, following a lawsuit. He managed to emigrate with his whole family to Austria, to Vienna.

The Dornhelm family's textile business was one of the strongest in the region. In the 1930s, Dornhelm was a member of the steering committee of the Jewish Community of Timisoara, and immediately after the war he was president of the community.

Andreas, his son, born in Bratislava in 1910, was the father of Robert Dornhelm, an internationally renowned film director. Magdalena, his daughter, was the mother of Ioan Holender, who became executive of the Staatsoper Wien and, later, of the Enescu Festival.

Sources

• Ioan Holender, From Timisoara to Vienna, Universal Dalsi Publishing House, 2002
• Saved memory. The Jews of Banat, yesterday and today, volume coordinated by Smaranda Vultur, Polirom Publishing House 2002. Interview with Magdalena Csendes Holender, pp.134-144
• Palace building in Timisoara https://timpolis.ro/cladirea-palace-din-timisoara-o-cronica-a-unui-dublu-rapt/
• Address almanac Timisoara Nagy Cimtára 1922. Written by D. Voniga
• The great address book Timisoara / Grosses Adressbuch / Nagy Cimtára, 1938. Written: Victor Orich
• Ki Kicsoda? A Bánsági Közélet Lexikonja, Timişoara 1930