Studied history/combined studies specializing in contemporary history and Spanish (master's degree 1999); since 1992 culture communicator in various exhibitions (Lower Austrian State Exhibitions, Künstlerhaus, Museum Niederösterreich); 2000 Austrian Historical Commission; 2001–14 historian in the General Settlement Fund; since 2015 provenance researcher in the State Collections of Lower Austria employed by the Danube University Krems.
René Schornstein/Sennhein was born the son of Richard and Yvonne Schornstein in Baden near Vienna in 1899. The Schornstein family converted in 1903/04 from Judaism to Roman Catholicism and changed their name in 1915 from Schornstein to Sennhein.