Career
After filling subordinate posts in Athens, Paris, and St. Petersburg, he was appointed minister to Romania in 1888 and ambassador to Italy in 1894. In 1897 Bülow was made secretary of state for foreign affairs and in 1900 became chancellor of the German Empire, heading the government from 1900 to 1909. Bülow's conduct during and after the Daily Telegraph interview in 1907, revealing Kaiser Wilhelm II's policy toward England, embittered the Kaiser, who in July 1909 dismissed his former favorite. Early in World War I he was again sent to Rome as ambassador, but his special mission proved fruitless when, in May 1915, Italy joined Germany's enemies. Besides his Deutsche Politik (1916), a defense of his policy, Bülow wrote Imperial Germany and later dictated four volumes of indiscreet but well-written Memoirs, which were published posthumously. He lived in Italy after he retired. Bülow died in Rome on Oct. 28, 1929.