In 1880 he volunteered as a member of an expedition of the German African society to establish a scientific station in East Africa.
At first the leader of the expedition was Captain von Schoeler, and other members were the zoologist Richard Boehm and the topographer Edward Kaiser.
[citation needed] Captain von Scholer returned to Europe via Zanzibar after founding the station at Kakama.
[citation needed] Reichard said of the Ufipa of the Rukwa region to the east of Lake Tanganyika that "calm, peace and order" reigned within the Fipa state.
Reichard crossed the Luapula twice, finding it was only 200 yards (180 m) wide, with many waterfalls and rapids as it drops down through the Konde Irunde and Mitumba mountains.
[citation needed] In 1889 Reichard criticized the German government for making the mistake of treating the Sultan Seyid Bargash of Zanzibar in the same way as a European monarch.
A comment on these assertions in the Journal of the American Geographical and Statistical Society said "Mr. Reichard's reasoning shows he has kept his nature unspotted from the world, and is more guileless than any one but a slave owner or a chief".
[7] After his return to Europe, Reichard lived in Nice for a while, then moved to Berlin-Charlottenburg, where he died on 16 September 1938[8] and was buried in the Stahnsdorf South-Western Cemetery.