Edinger began her professional career in 1921 as a paleontology research assistant at the University of Frankfurt , a position she held until 1927 . That year , she moved to a curatorial position in vertebrate paleontology at the Naturmuseum Senckenberg where she continued to work until 1938 , her position allowed her to spend time researching and studying vertebrates . While there , she wrote the founding work of paleoneurology , '' Die Fossilen Gehirne '' ( '' Fossil Brains '' ) , which was based on her discovery that mammalian brains left imprints on fossil skulls , allowing paleoneurologists to discern their anatomy . She used endocasts to examine the brain case 's interior , a method that was influential in the field . She was heavily influenced in her work by Otto Schindewolf , Louis Dollo and Friedrich von Huene , contemporary vertebrate paleontologists . Being Jewish , her career in Germany became much more difficult to conduct when the Nazi Party rose to power in 1933 and began enforcing " racial laws " that targeted the Jewish population . For the next five years , she continued to work in secret at the Naturmuseum Senckenberg under the protection of the Museum Director , Rudolf Richter . However , on November 9-10th of 1938 , marking the night of the “ Kristallnacht ” , she was later discovered on the 11th and was forced to consider emigrating elsewhere . In December 1938 , Phillipp Schwartz former professor at the University of Frankfurt , used his formerly established Notgemeinschaft Deutscher Wissenschaftler im Ausland society to provide aid to Edinger . Through this society , she was provided a position as a translator in London on May 1939
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Tilly Edinger