Born in Hamburg, Bierkamp joined that city's far-right Freikorps Bahrenfeld and the following year he participated in the Kapp Putsch, in an attempt to overthrow the Weimar Republic.

Bierkamp remained in RSHA at SS headquarters until he was appointed Inspector of the Security Police and SD (IdS) in Düsseldorf on 15 February 1941, holding this position until 24 June 1942.

[4] After training in anti-partisan warfare, on 30 June 1942 Bierkamp replaced SS-Standartenführer Otto Ohlendorf as commander of Einsatzgruppe D, an SS paramilitary death squad which was responsible for mass killings in the Soviet Union, chiefly in the area between southern Ukraine and the northern Caucasus.

[4] At that time, Bierkamp was posted as the Commander of SiPo and SD forces (BdS) in the General Government with headquarters in Kraków, retaining this position until February 1945.

If, he wrote, unforeseen circumstances made it impossible to transport the inmates, they were to be killed on the spot and the bodies disposed of by burning them, by blowing up the buildings, or by other means.

At the time of the Warsaw Uprising, Bierkamp issued orders for the preventative arrest of thousands of men in the Kraków and Radom districts who were to be shot if the unrest spread.

However, on 10 February 1945, the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) "Südost" in Silesia, SS-Obergruppenführer Ernst-Heinrich Schmauser, went missing and was presumed captured.