Bismarck is the eldest grandson of the Christian Democratic Union politician Otto Christian Archibald, Prince von Bismarck, the great-grandson of Herbert, Prince von Bismarck and the great-great-grandson of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck.
Between 1989 and 1992, he worked for the company Investor Treuhand in Düsseldorf. Since 1993 he has worked for the Princely Bismarck Administration (Fürstlich von Bismarck"schen Verwaltung) in Friedrichsruh. When Peter Harry Carstensen became Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein, Bismarck replaced him in the Bundestag, the German parliament.
He resigned his mandate on December 19, 2007.
If he had resigned in January, as planned, he would have been eligible for a pension, inciting more criticism.
Bismarck became a member of the Christian Democratic Union in 1995, and was elected vice-chairman of the Christian Democratic Union in Lauenburg in 1999 (his ancestor, Otto von Bismarck, had been the nominal Duke of Lauenburg in the 1890s).
