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Wilhelm Solf was born into a wealthy family in Berlin. He joined the German Foreign Office in 1888 and served in Calcutta but resigned after three years to study for a doctorate in law. His advanced degree qualified him for a higher position in the diplomatic service and he joined the Colonial Department of the Foreign Office. In 1898 he was appointed district judge in Dar es Salaam in German East Africa. In 1899, he was posted to the Samoan Islands, where he served as council chairman in the provisional government of the municipality of Apia, Samoa.

Following the division of the Samoan Islands as a result of the Tripartite Convention of 1899, the western islands were assigned to Germany and Eastern Samoa to the United States of America. Wilhelm Solf, at the age of 38, became first Governor of German Samoa on 1 March 1990. He was known as a liberal, painstaking and competent administrator. Under Solf's direction, plantation agriculture was encouraged and the enhanced tax revenues enabled the establishment of a public school system and the construction of an hospital. Road and harbour facilities were improved and the Samoan colony achieved self-sufficiency shortly before Solf's recall to Berlin.

After his return from Samoa, Solf served as Secretary of the German Colonial Office until 1918, travelling extensively to the German protectorates in West and East Africa in 1912 and 1913. He later served as ambassador to Japan. He was married to the former Johanna Dotti, who later formed the anti-Nazi Frau Solf Tea Party get-togethers with their Samoan-born daughter So'oa'emalelagi, also known as Lagi. Solf died in Berlin in 1936.