After finishing his doctoral dissertation, "Coniectanea in historiam rei metricae Francogallicae," he began to lecture at the University of Münster on the philology of the English and Romance languages, and defended his post-doctoral thesis (Habilitation) on the Roman de Rou.
In 1874 he began to edit, in collaboration with Wilhelm Scherer, Ernst Martin and Erich Schmidt, Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprach- und Kulturgeschichte der germanischen Völker, a book series meant to assist the German government in the Germanizing of Strasbourg and Alsace-Lorraine.
In addition, he made important contributions to the study of Shakespeare and Beowulf and authored one of the first scholarly histories of English literature.
His international scholarly reputation as well as his efforts at Germanizing the University of Strasbourg contributed to his appointment as Rektor (President) of his institution in 1890.
Together with Julius Zupitza, Eugen Kölbing, and Ewald Flügel, ten Brink helped found modern English Studies.