The youngest son of Otto von Bismarck, he and his brother Herbert von Bismarck both resigned their posts after the elder Bismarck was dismissed as Chancellor of Germany in 1890.
Wilhelm subsequently accepted an appointment as Governor of East Prussia in 1894.
Mount Wilhelm (German: Wilhelmsberg, or in Kuman: Enduwa Kombuglu, or Kombugl'o Dimbin) is the highest mountain in Papua New Guinea at 4,509 metres (14,793 ft), part of the Bismarck Range is named after him by Hugo Zöller.