in 1927, after the collapse of her husband's newspaper business, nugel obtained a part-time position at a school in emden. by 1930 her position there had become permanent, albeit at a smaller salary than the men in her school. the subjects she taught during this time included mathematics, physics, and german. between 1939 and 1945 she witnessed the bombing of the city of emden, as part of wwii, and the school was forced to move to bad wildungen; her two sons served as officers in the war, and were both killed in 1944.