By April 1902 he had risen to Lieutenant-Colonel in command of the Gardes du Corps Cavalry Regiment, personal bodyguard of the German Emperor Wilhelm II; and was assigned as his aide-de-camp in the following year.

He surrendered the Berliner Stadtschloss without a fight in order to keep intact the building and the works of art contained in it.

[10] On 18 January 1918, Richthofen was awarded the Order Pour le Mérite,[8] known informally as the Blue Max.

[11] On 2 May 1918, he attended a memorial service for his grandnephew Manfred von Richthofen who was killed in action on April 21.

As he had no children and he wished to keep his estate in the family, he legally adopted his nephew Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen, later a Generalfeldmarschall of the Luftwaffe in the Second World War.