In 1895 she returned to Germany to study botany. She spent eight semesters studying in Berlin under Adolf Engler and his associates, then transferred to the Heidelberg University where she was awarded a Ph.D. in 1900. Her thesis was titled Eine Monographie der Gattung Mollinedea—a monograph on the genus Mollinedia of flowering plants. Following her graduation, she went back to Berlin and joined the staff of the Royal Botanic Museum; now the Berlin-Dahlem Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum.
