Reuss began his studies in Ožďany, continued in the upper classes at Kežmarok, and completed a course in theology at the Lutheran High School in Bratislava between 1802 and 1805. He then continued his studies at the University of Jena on 16 October 1805. Abroad he learned from teachers Johann Jakob Griesbach and Heinrich Karl Eichstädt, Johann Gottfried Herder and Goethe and became the Secretary of the Mineralogical Society and a full member of the Latin Society. On October 14, 1806, he was present on the side of the Prussians in the Battle of Jena. He was elected as the Hungarian member of the Mineralogical Society at Jena in 1806.