[2] Granted a leave of absence from the army, in 1880, Wissmann accompanied explorer Paul Pogge on a journey through the Congo Basin.

Pogge stayed to build an agricultural research station for a Congolese chief, while Wissmann trekked to the Indian Ocean via present-day Tanzania.

[3] Afterwards Wissmann was in the employ of King Leopold II of Belgium, who was in the process of creating his personal African empire, known as the Congo Free State.

[5] When in 1888 the attempts of the German East Africa Company to start a dominion collapsed in face of African resistance, it asked Bismarck for help, which was at first refused.

The German forces, along with British naval assistance, fortified Bagamoyo, Dar es Salaam and retook Tanga and Pangani.

He was harshly attacked for burning villages and laying waste to agricultural fields, executing great numbers of natives and tolerating no opposition.

Rear Admiral Karl August Deinhard of the German East African naval detachment charged him with arrogance, tactlessness, being undiplomatic, and lack of organizing or administrative skills.

In 1890 a single-screw steamship christened SMS Hermann von Wissmann was built by the Hamburg Janssen and Schilinsky shipyard.

[2] A similar but smaller version christened the SMS Hedwig von Wissmann after Hermann's wife was launched on Lake Tanganyika in September 1900.