He then studied medicine in Göttingen, Würzburg, and Erlangen, and ophthalmology under Albrecht von Graefe at the Charité in Berlin.

Rudolf Berlin was a member of the Corps Hannovera Göttingen and Nassovia Würzburg.

[1] After completing his studies he became an assistant to Alexander Pagenstecher in Wiesbaden and at the surgical clinic in Tübingen.

Berlin worked on many different topics, such as the extirpation of the lacrimal sac, the influence of convex lenses on eccentric vision, cutting of the optic nerve, retinal detachment in horses, pathology and anatomy of lacrimal glands, and refraction in animal eyes.

He authored the section on Krankheiten der Orbita ("Diseases of the eye socket") in the Handbuch der gesamten Augenheilkunde ("Handbook of the entire field of Ophthalmology"), which was published by Albrecht von Graefe and Edwin Theodore Sämisch in Leipzig in 1880.