Succeeded Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst as German Imperial Chancellor in 1900. He was born the son of diplomat Bernhard Ernst von Bülow and his wife Luise Rücker auf Perdoel. His father served as State Secretary in the Foreign Office with Otto von Bismarck. 

As Chancellor, he inadvertently increased German isolation by his failure to gain the friendship of England and by his aggressive foreign policy. He antagonized France by his actions in the Moroccan Crisis of 1905. He later alienated Russia in the Bosnian Crisis of 1908 by thwarting Russian goals for the opening of the Dardanelles and supporting Austria-Hungary’s annexation of Bosnia and Hercegovina. As a result he strengthened the Triple Entente between Great Britain, France, and Russia. Bülow lost the confidence of Kaiser Wilhelm II in the Daily Telegraph affair (Oct. 1908) in which Wilhelm indiscreetly revealed his foreign policy toward Britain in an interview with the London newspaper; the interview caused a national uproar. Bülow had approved the text of Wilhelm’s remarks but had not read them. He subsequently lost support in the Reichstag over a proposed tax and was forced to resign in 1909. He later (1914–15) was ambassador to Italy during the First World War. He died in Rome on 28 October 1929.