Pascal was elected a fellow of Pembroke in 1929; between 1934 and 1936, he was university lecturer in German, and then returned to Pembroke as a fellow (until 1939), when he was appointed Professor of German at the University of Birmingham, in which position he remained until 1969. At Cambridge, he taught German at Pembroke and his pupils included C. P. Magill, Trevor Jones and F. J. Stopp. He also lectured on Baroque literature and the Reformation, the former being a topic barely studied in English universities at the time. His lectures on Martin Luther formed the basis of his first book, "The Social Basis of the German Reformation: Luther and his Times" (1933). It was a Marxist endeavour, and an attempt to connect German literature with its social and cultural context. After returning to Cambridge, Pascal joined the Labour Party (he would be greatly inspired by the literature of the German left during the 1920s and early 1930s) and believed that, in the midst of hyperinflation and the Wall Street crash, British reparation demands were damaging moderate political parties and radicalising German politics. In the United Kingdom, Pascal also sympathised with the Communist Party; his far left politics and his advocacy over reparations and Germany joining the League of Nations meant that his fellowship at Pembroke was not renewed after five years (although he remained at Cambridge as a lecturer).