Through his teacher Breusing and encouraged by August Petermann Koldewey was given the leadership of the first Arctic expedition as captain of ship Grönland.

It was equipped with the propeller steamboat Germania and the sailing ship Hansa under captain Paul Friedrich Hegemann.

Six scientists joined the expedition: astronomers and physicists Karl Nikolai Jensen Börgen and Ralph Copeland, zoologist, botanist and physician Adolf Pansch, and surveyor Julius von Payer.

On the Hansa travelled physician and zoologist Reinhold Wilhelm Buchholz and geologist Gustav Carl Laube.

From there the task of mapping out of the coast between 73° and 77° northern latitude was undertaken by taking measurements from the ship or using sleighs and whalers.

However, the actual highlight and most considerable geographical achievement of the expedition was the discovery and investigation of Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord.