 A lawyer, he became the owner of the family estate in Schönhausen and joined the diplomatic service in 1927, serving in Stockholm (1927–28), London (1928–37), with the Foreign Ministry in Berlin (1937–40), as Envoy to Rome (Kingdom of Italy) (1940–43), and finally as head of the Italian section of the Foreign Ministry (1943–44).In August 1942, Bismarck was directed to request that Italy turn over Jewish refugees in Italian-occupied Croatia for deportation to the East.He disclosed to the Italian Foreign Minister Count Ciano that the goal was the "dispersion and elimination" of these Jews.