Until his death in 1958, he worked on almost all periods of European prehistory and early history, in particular on the chronology of the European Bronze Age and Iron Age. The names Michelsberg culture (1908) and the Altheim culture (1915) as well as the periodization of the Hallstatt culture go back to him. Particularly important are his contributions in Volume V of the "Antiquities of our pagan past" (Alterthümer unserer heidnischen Vorzeit), where he developed, a chronology system, based on an historical analysis of stylistic features and on typological characteristics, that has essentially retained its validity to this day. Reinecke died in Herrsching, Bavaria.