Von Schimmelmann graduated from the Schule Schloss Salem and studied economics in Hamburg and Zurich.
[1][2] He earned his doctorate summa cum laude to which his dissertation dealt with the savings behavior of private persons.
He started in 1972, with positions in Cleveland, Ohio, Kuwait, and Düsseldorf and stayed with the company, eventually as a Partner, until 1978.
[1][4] Von Schimmelmann served as the chief executive officer of Deutsche Postbank, a German retail bank, from 1999 to 2007,[1][2] after Klaus Zumwinkel, with whom he had been acquainted since working for McKinsey, had promoted him to CEO and a part of the management board of Deutsche Post AG.
[6] In 2007, Von Schimmelmann unexpectedly resigned from the post of CEO of Postbank for "personal reasons"; his contract originally ran until 2008.